Things are Looking up!

After 2 weeks in the hospital, Elaine is slowly starting to feel better. She was able to get out for 20 minutes today in a wheelchair, which was about 10 minutes too long. It is a good start!

So far, they are waffling on the concept of Parkinson's disease. It appears that her total iron was very low, which can lead to symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease.

We were sitting around the bed the other day, a nurse, Elaine and myself trying to figure out why she was going down hill so badly in a week and a half. Some Googling showed that low iron will give similar results to P.

The nurse went and had a talk with the doctor. He was already on it and the special blood work just came back that evening. It is compounded by the Parkinson medication. If you give the maximum dose to a patient without P , then the side effects are (are you ready for this?)  identical to a patient with P.

Feeding 3 bags of iron solution, and cutting back slightly on the P meds gave almost instantaneous improvement! Taking her rapidly off the meds can spell disaster.

Now, she is still weak, still nauseous, very tired, and unable to do much, but this is a big improvement over Saturday when both Elaine and I figured she was checking out.

A little more improvement and she will probably be ready for release in the next week or so.

Why Trees Bend

It is kind of a damp, cloudy, bleary day around the Acreage today. I went and visited Elaine in the hospital, cleared up the hay shed for hay delivery tomorrow, took Brooklyn for a walk and swim, and could only find this poor little Blue Spruce to photograph. My heart was not in it-...kind of a downer day.

Elaine has now been in the hospital for one week, with minimal improvement. They have ruled out tumours or cancer as a cause, thank God! All other systems seem good. They did do a stomach biopsy just in case of a yeast infection.

They are back to Parkinson's Disease as a cause and suspect that they may have overdosed her on the medicine. Cutting back has allowed her to eat (for the first time in three weeks). This is a BIG improvement, even though it is just a few bites.

There is still no word as to when she might get out, certainly not before she can walk more than a few steps.

Sometimes life can get a little down on the Acreage! I must remind myself to be like the tree, big load and no bending.

Stay safe!