Aortic occlusion.............my poor Mum.

[triplets]

Its all happened so quickly, Mum is 84 and has had trouble walking because of painful legs for the last 4/5 years. GP put it down to age and arthritus. She is type 2 diabetic. She stubbed her big toe in March, this was the start of things to come. She ended up in hospital for a week, they did a ct angiogram. Four of her toes had turned black, dry gangrene. They sent her home saying there was nothing they could do as her aorta was blocked and any surgery would be too risky. She was only home a few days when she fell and cut her bad leg. She is now in a home for 2 weeks respite with a view to coming home. Her leg is not healing where she fell, they have sent swabs off today. I am getting scared that we do all not understand how very serious this is, by that I mean how long she can now survive. Its all happened so quickly, just weeks ago she was getting into taxis and meeting me for coffee.

I don't have any wise words, and hopefully wiser posters than me will be along soon; I didn't want your post to go unanswered.

Hugs for you, your mum and your loved ones, and I hope that things are resolved in a way that is best for you all.

Thank you Tapir, awake at 5am with a head full of gremlins. Life is very hard atm..............my dh hs cancer :(

Oh triplets I have been wondering how things were for you ,your mum and DH .
I don't know anything about aortic occlusion so my experience might not be valid .
But my mum has heart and kidney problems which result in oedma in her legs .
Any knock results in a skin tear and she has blood blisters that appear and develop onto ulcers .
They can remain for months ,a year even before healing .
So don't be discouraged by no signs of healing and swabs after 2 weeks .

It can take a while to arrive at correct treatment .

I didn't like to say before but I was a bit surprised to read from earlier posts that apparently the deterioation in her toes had gone unnoticed .
I don't mean you should have noticed ,but presumably DNT were visiting and checking ?

Can you ask GP or home or DNT or hospital or all four ,if she could be urgently referred for an assesment by a tissue viabilty nurse ?

Good luck .

Hi Ginger, she was being seen at the podiatry dept at our local hosp and her own gp twice a week. We never saw her leg or foot for almost 3 months as they were bandaged tightly. She told us it was getting better. It was only when I surprised her at the hosp that I saw it, was so shocked. Now another prob, been told they want her to go for an ultra sound on her abdomen, the ct revealed an unrelated problem in her liver, blocked bile ducts. Can`t face telling her they want her to go for more tests, she is so fed up and tired. Thanks for your reply, hope your mum is ok xx

That's not a good way to find out ,and I imagine your capacity to cope with ever more medical issues in your loved ones must be stretched to the limit .

Hopefully the blocked bile ducts won't be a big issue ?
My mum has this ,they discovered it about 8 years ago .
I don't know what effect it has on her ,she has no treatment for it .

At the time they also wanted her to have a liver biospy but we declined .

I'm afraid that once you are in the system it seems to trigger requests for more and more tests .
I've finally realised that I can decline the more invasive ones (my mum is 92 and she's really not physically able to cope with all the visits and tests they'd like ) tho I do try and get them to talk me through why they want them ,what they're looking for and what the choices would be if they find something ...

I'm afraid that it has often seemed to me that they regard the patient as a case study to explore rather than an elderly human being .
But perhaps they need to be so detached in able to do their job.

How is your DH doing ?