(322/366) Maybe

3

November 17, 2012 – Such a seemingly benign little pill with such a long history and so many uses. It’s not something you think about until you need it, and then sometimes when you need it, you can’t have it. Amazingly, aspirin (ASA)  is one of the most widely used medications in the world, with an estimated 40,000 tonnes of it being consumed each year.

Mom’s last week has been pretty terrible. It’s had it’s ups and downs, and the inability to have an MRI was a major blow. But there is still the CT scan as a tool, and she had another today. This one, I am told, showed improvement. I haven’t seen the neurologist so I haven’t been able to see it for comparison, but a family doctor from the office Mom visits was by today and says that the case has been/or is being transferred back to the family practitioners office. That’s good news, because it means that (hopefully) the critical phase is passing.

It also means that she may be able to have blood thinners, nothing major yet, just aspirin, soon. And that’s an even better thing. I’m not yet sure how they will deal with the clot in her leg, presumably when she is allowed thinners they will help avoid further clotting and may aid in breaking down the existing clot. Until now that was a faint hope since the stroke she suffered was a haemorrhagic stroke with bleeding on the brain and thinning the blood could increase the risks. But today’s news that the CT scan showed improvement means that the ability to take something as simple as aspirin is that much closer, and that means that she is that much closer to being able to enter rehabilitation.

It’s tentatively good news. I say tentatively since my hopes have been dashed a few times this week. Today was a bit easier to bear because I had family around, and my former supervisor gave me a surprise call and suggested meeting for a coffee. It was wonderful to see him again, and he confirmed what I was relatively certain of – that I am certainly the most emotional individual to pass through his lab. Once again, sometimes it is so wonderful to have a bit of time, in a time of need, with someone who isn’t part of what you are going through. Sometimes I think those individuals can provide some of the best comfort and provide some measure of strength.

Mom was pretty out of sorts in the morning, and said she’d had a terrible night’s sleep. She said she’d somehow knocked the feeding system loose and ended up covered in it and wet and sticky. But the nurses had no written record of anything other than Mom ringing the bell several times through the night and asking for me (that was hard to hear as I was about to purchase a ticket home, to come back in a week and a half). Mom was in pretty good spirits this afternoon and evening, and that was heartening too. We set Mom up with an iPod and a CBC radio podcast and slipped out for dinner. In times past I’ve given her the radio but she usually takes it off because something she doesn’t like comes on. But having the podcast seemed to work well. The only downside is that she can’t really operate it on her own so someone needs to help her with it. And when we came back from dinner the nurse came in to flush her feeding line and turn the system on for the night. Then she said she’d accidentally forgotten to turn the valve on the tube and the pressure had dislodged it and caused a sticky mess. So, Mom wasn’t imagining it, that was happily received information.

The family took a quick visit down to rehab to see where Mom would go eventually gave us a lot of comfort too. The team there seemed upbeat and attentive, and more than happy to give us a brief tour. They aren’t stressed and run off their feet as the staff in the critical care units are, and the setup seemed positive and supportive. It’s encouraging and I think it will be a great place to start getting back on her feet.

But it’s hard to leave her. It’s so hard when you live so far away, and when an emergency leaves you torn.

But I can hope that she will at least get started on aspirin soon.

Baby steps, right?

(Today I came very, very close to calling this 365 project quits. This lousy photo is obviously a last minute desperate attempt to just get a shot.)