Mums turn to be ill...gulp

[Theas18]

Don't know if you recall, dad has dementia and at the start of 2013 had palliative radiotherapy. All in all he's doing ok - lymphoma stopped/regressed , dementia well, yknow, trying as usual.

Mum has renal failure now. As part of the work up a scan showed a renal mass that looked like cancer- 2 weeks later had a scan, and it isn't. That's the good news...

Bad news - she still has renal failure or course- seeing them tomorrow- but also she looks like having myeloma ( maybe a cause of the renal failure, probably not as it's been creeping on since 2009). Still no haematology appointment though...

Wonder where we go from here- last week we had some scares about her potassium levels - I was called at work, 90 mins away " we need you mum to go to a&e urgently to get her levels checked and we can't locate her" yeah....umm..I have her tagged ill just see!
( actually she was at the day centre fortunately!)

Argh!

Really sorry to hear that Theas. No words of wisdom for you, just understanding as both my parents are ill - I worked out that between them they'd had 15 actual admissions to hospital this year, 10 emergency ambulance call outs, and I think 30 OOH GP visits.

Only and sympathy. Juggling two sets of appointments and providing different types of support to both sounds really difficult.

And difficult for your parents as well I assume, as your mother presumably feels she has to look after your father, and your father will struggle to understand why she is not there.

Well....

First if all I officially afore her renal doc.he understands looking after old people... Eg don't do a test just because you can if it's not going to change management.... And also be prepared to do what will make her feel better rather than look at miserable " life prolonging " treatment- she needs to be able to enjoy the now.

So...we've come off the iron tablets ( her blood count wasn't better and she was getting terrible diarrhoea) . We need to see the haematologist and if he is happy they will treat the anaemia with intravenous iron and epo hormone injections.

As what she suffers from is tiredness and breathlessness that is a really good thing.

And her kidneys have enough capacity to " last her out" pending any other illnesses!

Just offering sympathy , Hot Beverage: , my Mum is elderly and has been in and out of hospital all year. It is sad, worrying and exhausting.

Glad to hear that you have such a lovely doctor.

x

Very sorry to hear that Theas .It is good to hear about the Doctor.

The dr sounds good. there is no point in suffering endless tests etc if there is no treatable outcome.