Over the River and Through The Woods

Grandma's House is MY House Too!

A great stress free Thanksgiving.  My brother cooked almost all of Thanksgiving by himself.  I assisted with a couple of dishes with my Mom's help, and my sister brought over a lovely Waldorf salad.  I am thankful for my family.  My brother in law was able to stay, eat a wonderful Thanksgiving meal in our sun room, go into the living room and watch a football game with my brothers - the first time he has stayed this long since his stroke 2 years ago.  He had a great time, and we all did too!!  My sister was able to stay long enough to relax, and my Mom had a wonderful afternoon and evening, after a rough start this morning.  We had tornados going through last night, so we were all thankful that the damage passed us by!

Mom is 80 this year and woke up this morning with a scare being too dizzy to stand or walk.  She has had quite a few mini-strokes and has high blood pressure in addition to being a colon cancer survivor and having advanced COPD.   I try to be very cautious with her health, but she can be very stubborn about getting medical help.  I finally convinced her to take a Zofran she had for nausea, and then to eat a little something and her headache and the seasickness went away.  If it hadn't we would have been heading over to an emergency room to make sure she had not had another TIA.

She does not have a good sense of hunger since they removed part of her stomach when she had colon cancer surgery a couple of years ago, so I was not sure what she had eaten the day before.  My brothers were cooking in our kitchen, and I think she got so interested in the cooking she forgot to eat.  I got home late and asked her if she had eaten and she told me yes, but I think she misremembered since eating something this morning made her symptoms go away.  She felt fine the rest of the day, so watchful waiting tomorrow to make sure she still feels OK.  She definitely ate plenty today!!

I will find out the results of my EMG next week.  Dr. Welby was very nice and explained his preliminary findings to me yesterday.  I definitely do not have diabetic neuropathy.  I definitely do not have peripheral neuropathy.  I defnitely do not have a structural issue like spinal stenosis or degenerative disk disease.  I have normal nerve function in my lower nerves.  I have abnormal nerve function in my lumbosacral plexus which feeds the nerve impulses down to my lower nerves.  There seems to be a lot of mis-signaling going on in the plexus, perhaps due to fibrotic changes from pelvic radiation therapy.  He could tell I had abnormal nerve signalling going on as concerns pain location and perception.  He has treated one other person for post radiation lumbosacral plexopathy - a 70 yo man who had radiation for testicular cancer 40 some years ago and just NOW is having problems. 

He understood when I told him my digestive issues were thought to be due to nerve damage in the intestines rather than mucosal damage.  He spoke to me as if I had a functioning brain and not once did he try to pooh pooh my concerns (as the Dr. Dunces did).  He said I did not show myokemic discharges in the plexus nerves which very easily points to radiation nerve damage, but not everyone has that symptom.  He had a difficult time finding a functional nerve to test in my lumbosacral region.  He felt that perhaps I have damage in the cauda equina region also based on the symptoms I gave him.  Sigh...  Well at least they can't tell me AGAIN I have peripheral neuropahty or diabetic neuropathy. These have been finally and absolutely RULED OUT.  I guess I have that to be Thankful For!  Adding it to my list!!!  Just wondering what the final report will say, as I asked specifically what my future will look like.  Sigh again...

Hoping you all have great Thanksgivings and don't wear yourselves out too much.  Praying that you all have pain free holidays!