New Member

[Guest guest]

writes:

I would welcome any emails from ya'll as to what I should think about

all of this. I am so angry with this GP that he did not see this coming

or worry about all of these indications and allowing her blood count to

get so low in the first place. Do any of you think the severe low blood

count could have caused her cardiac problems or was it there all the

time lying dormant? I don't know much about heart problems at all. I am

her only child and she has no other family.

First, , my sincere sympathy for going through this difficult time

with your mom. Over many years as an only child I too took care of a mom who had

COPD and a triple bypass and eventually heart failure.

Second, the horror story you relate in your post is, unfortunately, all too

typical. In 1992 my mother was sent home from the hospital after her 3-day

Medicare period was up, by new doctors in an office where she had gone for

twenty years. I was left to cope with her deteriorating health alone and the

best

I could.

She could not stay awake and she did not want to eat. She had a horrible,

liquidy cough. She grew worse each day, and I rushed her to an ER near my home

100 miles away in Sacramento where they diagnosed heart failure and put her

on meds that gave her four more years of a reasonably comfortable life. She

had gained 40 pounds and was drowning in fluid.

Her own doctors did not even diagnose heart failure. My ex husband nearly

died last year when his doctor ignored the possibility of a diagnosis other than

her own, did not send him to a specialist, treated him for diverticulitis

when he had ulcerative colitis (making his condition far worse) and watched

him lose 43 pounds in one month while she stood by doing nothing. He was

hospitalized twice and I had to raise the roof to get him on tpn (nutrition

through IV) ... Your story is infuriating as are all of these and they are

happening all around us, all the time, in today's medicine, a lot of it due to

HMO

and insurance lethargy. I am not condemning all doctors! But these stories are

indicative of medical treatment that is *unacceptable.*

Do whatever you can to get your mother to the best cardiologist/EP you can

find, keep talking, keep insisting, the squeaky wheel DOES get the oil although

you will be made to feel as if you are a loud, pushy person, persist anyway.

Do not let *anyone* tell you they can't see her for three weeks or put you

off.

It is not surprising she has developed some afib with all the stress her

body has been through. Start with getting the best medical help you can and

persevere. You are her only champion, I knowthis role so well, and I know you

will not let her down. And there is a special place in heaven for only children

who fight the good fight for their parents - it is harder on us, usually,

without the support of siblings. Stay in touch with us. You will find a lot of

support here.

Many hugs to you, .

Lil