Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

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Well, I’m back after a long weekend away for the annual lads’ pilgrimage to Norfolk for our pre-Christmas Christmas GASPs foot, games and movie fest. For the second year in a row, it has taken place Saturday to Tuesday instead of the original Friday to Monday slot. I think the change is likely to become permanent and several members of our contingent (the unmarried ones) are extending it to a week of slovenliness away from home.

It’s been a weekend of ups and downs.

On the drive up to Sheringham, I was phoned by my tearful sister, pretty much at the point where the option to do anything had left me, to inform me that after four days in the respite home after leaving the hospital following treatment for her stroke, Mum was back in hospital – this time in Telford, so harder for the family to visit – with another suspected stroke.

It turns out that it wasn’t that, but something else. Now it’s her heart. One of the valves is misbehaving, alternately obstructing the blood flow and then letting too much through. This arrhythmia seems to be at least a contributory factor in her recent illness and was quickly discovered by the staff at the Princess Royal. Quite why, in five weeks, the Royal Shrewsbury didn’t notice, is anyone’s guess. While they won’t (or can’t) say that this caused the original stroke, it is the reason why her blood pressure alternates between rock bottom and too high. She is either not getting enough blood to her brain and getting dizzy, or too much, raising her blood pressure and possibly causing (or at least contributing to the possibility) of a stroke. It seems certain this is what caused her to fall and that fall together with the arrhythmia may have set off her initial bleeds.

The good news is that it is a condition that is quickly and easily controlled with medication. She was soon alert and sitting in bed grumbling about being hungry, so that sounds hopeful. She was kept in overnight and went back to the rest home.

Unfortunately she is back in hospital as I type, but now in Shrewsbury. I don’t blame her for being confused this time – she knows she is in hospital, but can’t retain which one, which is hardly surprising or particularly indicative, I think. She is 85 and has been whisked from pillar to post, after all.

Initially the news as told to me was that she had suffered from some sort of fit, but in later, less panicked conversations it seems that it was more a case of continued confusion and dizziness. The doctors at Shrewsbury weren’t willing to speculate and after suggesting that it might have been such and such a drug withdrew that suggestion after being told that she’d been taking it for ten years as part of her blood pressure treatment.

My mind, uncluttered by expensive medical training, suggested that it was a reaction to the new medication in conjunction perhaps with her old medication. I simply thought ‘what has changed?’ and came to the conclusion that there are extra chemicals in her system. Even if they on their own do not produce such side effects, it is the only obvious change and now it seems that after several hours of faffing around, the Shrewsbury doctors have come to a similar conclusion. I have to say that I am losing faith in their peculiar brand of quackery. I just wish the Princes Royal Hospital were closer to my sister for easier visiting; I’d much prefer Mum to be treated there.

Anyway, they are fiddling with the cocktail to find the right balance between something that will work on the valve and which won’t react with other medication (which she might not need, if the heart problem is controlled properly). I’ve not heard anything after the flurry of phone calls over the weekend. I choose to see this as a positive sign.

She’s a tough old bird, my Mum, but she needs to go home and the family need her home, even if it’s under modified circumstances. It’s not doing anyone any good.

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