Progress

My mom has been out of work for a year this month. She injured her back and she was unable to keep her job. Standing or sitting for long periods is troublesome for her, and even driving is an issue. She can only handle driving for 30-minute stretches.

She’s seen numerous doctors, a physical therapist, surgeon, pain specialist and now a year later she’s finally getting somewhere. She had a discogram done a couple weeks ago. Today, she got the results. She needs surgery to repair L4-L5 disc ruptures. She has an appointment Nov 6 to meet with the surgeon that performed Frank’s back surgery.

After Frank had his surgery he felt better immediately, recovery took sometime but he was worlds better right away. I hope my mom finds the same.

That’s not all she’s had to deal with, she was also diagnosed with diabetes in June while she was being treated for pneumonia. She’s getting more comfortable now living as a diabetic. When she didn’t fully recover from the pneumonia her doctor requested a CT Scan of her chest. Fortunately, her lungs looked pretty good; as good as they could be for a smoker, anyway. But the test revealed stones in her gallbladder. Surgery was recommended right away to prevent the need for emergency surgery. That was months ago. She’s been in a referral nightmare. Just this week, she was finally able to meet with a surgeon to discuss the removal of her gallbladder. Of course, more paperwork must get in order before her surgery is scheduled. With any luck, it will be very soon. I’m not sure how much longer her gallbladder can hold up. Her flare ups keep getting worse and worse.

Still, that’s not all. Amid all this she had abnormal cells on her leg that needed to be removed. Last week, she finally had the patch removed. She had been waiting since July. My mom has had melanoma before. You’d think they’d act quickly but nope. Evidently, three months is appropriate. Another biopsy was taken, I hope those results come back alright.

She’s been in pain for a very long time. It seems like there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. I hope both of these surgeries go well and recovery is quick so she can be well on her way once again.

Because of all of this, she needs an extra set of hands at the house. She’s too far and has too many animals to care for, I cannot be there often enough to help.

Mike, my brother, is the only one of us kids that isn’t working or in school so it made the most sense for him to come out and lend a hand.

He’ll fly in on Saturday, he’ll stay until mid-November. We haven’t seen him since February it’ll be nice to catch up. I’m looking forward to his visit.