Friday, January 20, 2006

California & Texas

Health seems to be the running theme of our and my folks' lives right now. My dad had more biopsies and surgeries last Friday on six different spots. I am continually amazed that he can tolerate the general anethesia as often as he goes through this at his age.

Mom and I were in Denair when he had his surgery. We debated going but decided it was very important for Mom to go see her sister. Julie had made all the arrangements with different family members to be with Daddy while we were gone.

We almost turned around in Fresno as Daddy had an anxiety attack again. He had to go in for an EKG Thurs. morning (the day we left) to verify his heart could stand the surgery. He had driven Marie's car there as we had their car. He came out, couldn't find it and then spent a half hour looking for it. He got the security people to help but they didn't know what they were looking for so finally called Marie who promptly called her mom. Julie came right down and got to the house as Daddy was coming home. He had finally figured out which vehicle he was in but was in a total state of panic by the time he got there. He eventually calmed down with Julie there and all went well the rest of the weekend.

We had a nice visit up north though Mom and I were sick the whole time. I ended up in urgent care for a sinus infection & laryngitis - mainly to get on antibiotics to keep from infecting all the frail, elderly people there. It's so hard for me to go to CA as I usually spend my entire time taking them to doctor's appointments and I see their health deteriorating each visit. I know it's just a matter of time and that's difficult to contemplate.

Richard had an appt. w/the surgeon Wed. The surgeon wants a portion of the diskogram repeated as the results were ambiguous and inconsistent with the MRI & CT scan. His regular physician is out of town so he won't be able to schedule that until next week. The surgeon told him if the next diskogram confirms the MRI then he would be a candidate for a disk replacement or fusion. So ... more waiting.

5 comments:

  1. Dianna, you should try Airborne and/or Zicam to try to ward off some of the colds you get. My friend Glenda is convinced Airborne prevented a cold she felt coming on, and Carrie and I have used Zicam with good results.

    We're waiting with you on [hopefully] better news on Richard.

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  2. I managed to get through all of last year without getting sick. Your mom told me about Zicam after I had already come down with my cold. I first heard about Airborne up at Esaus. I know the stress of traveling and dealing with my folks and their problems didn't help either.

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  3. Be careful with Zicam. The company has been sued (and paid millions in damages) for the product causing loss of sense of smell.

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  4. Thanks for that warning info, Daryl. I had not heard that. I'll be more wary and stick to Airborne,

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  5. I don't know what you are talking about--I never heard of Zicam! What is it supposed to be good for? And is it OTC or Rx?

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