As I stated in my last post, one of the issues that mom has been experiencing is vomiting. I mean a lot of it!
Over the last week mom has had 4 days with vomiting episodes. She vomits until she empties everything in her stomach.
We have talked to her PCP and her Neurologist about this issue in the past, but that was back when it happened maybe once every 6 weeks or so. They had no explanation and really no concern at that time.
Terri tried to track everything that mom was eating so that maybe we could determine was there a pattern or was it something particular that she was eating. I was convinced that it was Ensure overload and milk. So I asked Terri to stop giving them to mom as she was eating solid food well again at that time and no longer need the Ensure to get her calories.
It helped for a few weeks.... But then started again. I even went as far as change our milk product to coconut milk. Still didn't help.
Last week I was at my wits end and texted her PCP, who is a friend of mine that I use to work for. I think my text said, that if she could not help me with the vomiting... I was going to lose my mind. When mom has the fits of vomiting, she is good as long as you do not move her once her stomach has settled. So moving her from the couch to put her in bed, it starts all over again. It is only January and I've already missed a day of work, as Shawn and I had to sit up with her until like 2am the one day until the vomiting stopped. Not to mention that I had not a single towel or sheet left in the house that didn't now need to be washed.
She said to me that it was time to go see a GI Doctor. Luckily Shawnie has a very good friend that is a GI doctor. I called him Thursday of last week and he got mom into the office yesterday "Tuesday".
He feels that mom has a paralytic stomach. Meaning that mom's stomach is not chewing up the food and the food is not leaving her stomach. Once it gets to full the only way out is to vomit. He got to this conclusion by asking us what are we seeing in her vomit. I looked to Shawn to answer that question as I am such a sissy and can not even smell it much less look at it without vomiting myself. Doctor asked do you see food for breakfast? Shawn said we see food for dinner the night before!
He asked me if I would agree to a CT Scan just to be sure that there is not blockage or entanglement issue going on. As this is non-invasive test, I agreed. We are still waiting on a call to schedule the scan.
Last night I went out to by something to pulverize moms food before we feed it to her. That was the doctors recommendation to help with the vomiting. I bought to mac daddy Nurti-Bullet from Bed Bath and Beyond. Don't think that I thought it through though. It only has one speed and turns just about everything to mush. While mush might be ok; the noise is crazy. Shawn laughed when he read the box. 2.3 horsepower.... yup I think that will blend. So I am still on the hunt.
Today "Wednesday" we saw her Neurologist for the 6 month check up appt. The visit was mainly just a check in visit. She was surprised to see such a BIG change in mom from 6 months ago. I asked about taking mom off of the Exelon patch as we are way beyond it helping her with the prolonging of daily functions, like dressing herself- Bathing herself- or even feeding herself. She was not at all opposed or concerned to discontinue the medication. Not to mention that fact that the Patch alone was more than 4K a year.
I asked her Neurologist if she ever had a patient who's cognitive function increased when on antibiotics? I said, I mean any antibiotic not use for a UTI.... She said no why.
Shawn and I both noticed that mom seems much more alert when on antibiotics - She feeds herself a few bites, she wants to walk around, she talks more etc. Her Dr. said that her ammonia levels might be off. That was her only though. She order blood work to have it checked.
Keeping you all updated to changes as promised!😉
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