Medical update

Mom had an important set of medical appointments Monday. Through the decogram or whatever the doctor found that Mom had osteoporosis and some breakage on her vertebrae – not bad enough for surgery. The doctor – a back specialist – has given some mixed messages. On the one hand, he identifies with Mom and since he loves working he thinks she should too and work forever. On the other hand, he wants her to do exercises that are not easy for her to do while working. Possible is standing straight with her back against a wall for 5 minutes each hour. Tougher is sitting up very straight for 15 minutes of every hour. As with me, soon after we start working on her computer, we’re hunched over, and good posture goes out the window. We’re so used to this that it’d be hard to work all the time and sit up straight all the time – at least for us. He also says that he only does surgery, but says she doesn’t need to go to physical therapy – just follow his unrealistic advice. We’re hoping she goes to PT or whatever – to supplement/ complement tai chi and whatever she’s able to do at work – shortly.

On the one hand, Mom’s job (and sometimes driving) is where she feels most comfortable physically and keeps her sharp/happier. But by keeping her hunched over and keeping her from exercising her job may also be worsening her physical shape (and ultimately may make it hard for her to keep working).

The back doctor was actually less worried about Mom’s back and more worried – with her osteoporosis – about the possibility of her falling and breaking her hip. The doctor apparently raised the specter of what I know as a possibility because of my manager’s experience with his mother: (technically) “successful” hip replacement surgery with the patient never recovering and dying. Mom is also equally worried about another possibility: my Mom falling or just finding herself on the ground and not – because of her knees and back and weak muscles – being able to get up. Grandma Beck fell over a phone cord at their Westerville home – relatively late in her time there – and wasn’t able to get up for hours.

Mom says she’s a little depressed in general about her physical condition. As it turns out, she probably does need to get conventional knee replacement surgery on her other knee (the one not operated on last summer) – maybe at Christmas? – and of course one of the reasons she has trouble getting up is she was weak after that last surgery and she couldn’t race through physical therapy as they hoped she could. One of the many things she wishes she could be doing – going through her stuff at home – she said is hard because it’s hard for her to reach up and grab things – boxes, clothes, files – that she wants to go through. It’s also hard for her to cook and get dressed.

Except perhaps for some church, concerts, AAUW, and reading at home, Mom may not care much about the rest of this stuff. But if she can’t get fed and get up in the morning, she’s not going to be able to go to work. She didn’t have much to say about my wild idea that she move in with us, go to physical therapy or exercise ($5 water aerobics classes at our gym every morning and my PT has a gym with her practice), and telecommute to work. But Mom may need more help (on top of what Jodi and Clarence are doing to keep the inside and outside of her house somewhat clean) at home to still be able to go to work, and so on. . .

Speaking of health problems and possible medical leave time off, I finally called my surgeon back today. In addition to my back, neck, and shoulder continuing to bother me a little (continuation of summer 2007 Michigan injury), I’m afraid my hernia is coming back.

I guess Sunday night Vincent impressed his father so much with their tour of the Bardstown Road area that his father declared he’d be interested in moving to Louisville (!?) (don’t know whether to take that very seriously).

We met at new church family’s house Tuesday – a family whose father (with complications from cancer surgery) I visited in the hospital last week – and we finally put together that the mother teaches English (African American literature but some early U.S. literature) at Indiana University Southeast and – if Vincent ever finishes high school and goes on to college – this is a likely place for him to land and English is a likely major for him – and so she’d likely be one of his professors. She said the department has no creative writing major – but a general writing major whose components include poetry, fiction, technical writing, and non-fiction writing (including writing for the Web!).

Stephanie’s Mother reports that Bobby’s condition is still not good.

Aunt Sandy and Mom talked today about Mom helping Sandy for someone to help look after Grandpa while Sandy and Don are up at church camp in Mt. Vernon later summer. Grandpa hasn’t been very helpful about this. I may go up and help out for a few days.

Last week we also helped Stephanie’s father find some information about one of the tenants lined up against him in court. But fearing the worst, Stephanie’s father went ahead and settled early this week. Stephanie’s father also faces some security concerns around his properties.

-- Perry