stents and backpack/pic lines: Questions/help

[Guest guest]

If stents 'fall out' after a year... does that mean surgery

to retrieve them? I gather some are only in for a few weeks or

so. But I've not heard of any time limit for my brother-in-law,

so I'm assuming his is supposed to be there for a while(?)

Anything special advice I could forward to him, about stents?

My other question: anyone have any tricks or advice on how

to get around/manage the backpack device my brother-in-law

got after his last stay in the hospital? He's home, very weak,

still with a pic line. He says if it weren't so heavy, he'd use his

walker more.

He was sitting up more in bed, dangling legs, his daughter said this

last week and he's put in some phone calls to get help at the house and

to help my sister. That's good.

But still he's NOT outa bed! We've all talked about trying to get a PT

person to come in. But, with my sister now so sick, I gather my niece,

(his daughter) never got to bring up the subject, despite her plan to.

I don't see myself calling the internist (who is the doctor for both

them, but whom I've never met). I could ask my cousin to call(?)--he's a

doctor, lives out of town like the rest of us, but he does agree

activity is important. Suggestion appreciated.

Lord knows, my sister needs help and hope and a more positive

environment than exists there.

I can't imagine how stressful and exhausting it must have been these

last two months, with her supposed 'cold' symptoms coming on, then

hanging on, then the slew of tests for herself, and growing suspicions.

All the while, she tries to take care of Dave, too. Coughing,

not sleeping, finally qualifying for oxygen. Then her ankles swelled

(blood clots we now know, most likely from the way she was positioned

when her lung was drained). And after that, the cancer diagnosis

and finally, with blood thinners, her ankles got better right away

It occurs to me that I am saying that I do NOT think the doctors

are acting quickly enough or effectively enough for EITHER of them.

But I'm especially troubled about my sister. Sadly, there's no chance

of a cure, she's maybe 8-10 months left (average statistics) if she

tries chemo, less without it. Of course, they want to make her as

comfortable as possible.

But, HEY there, 10 days suffering from badly swollen ankles

is hardly a a good send off to chemo, now is it, hardly quality of life.

An awful deck of cards and sad for any of us to have to contemplate.

Forgive me for laying thngs out so starkly.

But it seems to me that it's imperative that a more concertive,

systematic attempt be made to get Dave up and out of bed, for both

their sakes.

I'm sure the backpack/IV device is awfully heavy for him. There must

be some strategies to try and I think the doctors need to be prodded,

also.

Any ideas how to move this along?

--

Sally

Sally L. Hobson, Ph. D.

mailto:hobson@...

http://www.adelphi.edu/~hobson