Ulcer Relief Isle 8

Robert: Things have been very crazy here over the past few months. We have had tons of house guests during the summer break. Everyone is well aware of Rayne's weekly visits. Aunt Lisa stayed with Tiger while my parents & I took Rayne back to GA. She graciously accepted my parents offer to stay the rest of the week to help us out & we are very thankful for that. Then came our new addition, Trixie, followed by several days with Uncle Paul. By the end of the last visit my whole family was just totally exhausted.

As Uncle Paul's visit came to an end mommy was not feeling well. As the afternoon came mommy was using her cane again. She also started having shooting nerve pain in her neck & shoulders, as well as intermittent issues with speech, vision, & cognitive function. By Friday mommy was still symptomatic plus had started to get pelvic pain & muscle spasms in her chest. The doctor told mommy to go to ER to see if it was an infection creating this episode.

HI HO HI HO it was off to the ER at Walter Reed. Mommy tried frantically to find a babysitter for me, but was unsuccessful on such short notice. I know, I know what's the big deal. I always go with my parents when mommy is sick. Well as I am getting smarter & starting to understand more things in this big world of ours I am also beginning to understand when my mommy is very sick. It scares me to know that doctors are doing painful things to my mommy when they are trying to make her better. My mommy has been trying desperately to keep me from experiencing these things & try to let me have a more normal kid life. Most times she has been successful in setting up play dates for her appts & tests. This time I went to the ER I didn't stay too long. I got very upset when mommy went to see the triage nurse & was given her arm band. I kept asking mommy if she was hurt. Daddy tried to take me for a walk to distract me but I just wanted to see mommy. After about 45 minutes daddy took me home.

Mommy went through a bunch of tests while we were at home. The 1 doctor was convinced mommy's appendix had ruptured. He refused to let Neurology check mommy until they knew she wasn't going to need emergency surgery. I guess that was a good idea but mommy wasn't really having appendix symptoms. After hours of fasting. 2 bags of iv fluid, & a CT Scan we learned that mommy has some uterine fibroids. The Neuro finally came to examine mommy. Mommy was feeling better after all of the rest & fluids but no way near 100%. The dr talked to mommy about going inpatient for 5 days of steroids. Before mommy made her decision she asked tons of questions. We are glad she did because the dr couldn't tell mommy how exactly it would effect her Tysabri infusion on 9/2. The doctor explained that since mommy would be right off the steroids she didn't think mommy should have her infusion for Sept. That right there made the decision for mommy to decline inpatient treatment with steroids. Just in case we forgot to mention this since mommy has started this medicine Tysabri increases the patients risk to acquire PML. Each time there is a gap in the infusions it greatly increases the risk of getting this yucky disease. Plus there is the fact that it is usually fatal or leaves the person in a vegetative state. Ummmm NO mommy you will NOT miss your infusion for Sept.

In the end mommy was discharged from the ER. The Dr had told mommy she needed to have 2 days of bed rest & follow up with Dr. Gruber (mommy's current Neuro Dr). Yet the discharge paperwork mentioned nothing about any of this stuff. Mommy has already sent an update email to Dr. Gruber & the head RN over at Bethesda. This was agreed upon on Friday so they will have the update first thing Monday morning. In the meantime mommy should be resting, but that never goes as planned since everyone wants mommy. It's not a bad thing that we all love our mommy so much that we don't like to be without her :-)