October 24, 2006
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My mother is home from the hospital now. And she’s doing ok now. But it was pretty fucking scary!!! They also had to put two units of blood in her as well because her iron levels were so low as well as her red cell count. She was dangerously anemic. She was so close to death. And she’s also diabetic now! Isn’t that great! But the docs said that her blood sugar is messed up temporarily because of the stress on her body, but it’s got to be monitored for a couple weeks at least. She’s still real weak but it’s because she’s still a little low on red blood cells and her body has to make it’s own and get itself caught up. And it’s going to be a little bit weak until it does. Just like you feel after donating blood. She is also off all those heart meds as well. And we’re also going to be looking for another doctor. And possibly an attorney for a medical malpractice suit. Why in the hell did he put her on blood pressure meds (we didn’t know that’s what that stuff was for! We were told something else!!) when her blood pressure was ok? And why didn’t he check her iron, potassium, and red blood cell count before he changed her meds to begin with? When I took her in, her blood pressure was 64/32, her potassium was half what is supposed to be, her red blood cell count was half of normal, and her iron was half of normal, and she was going into kidney failure!!!!! Her body was shutting down!!!!! She was dying!!!!!!! And she wasn’t going to go peacefully either! She was going to die of a massive heart attack at any minute if I didn’t take her into the ER!!
But the reason she was so low on iron was because she had gastric bypass surgery back in 1979. And because of that, she is unable to absorb iron. And her doctor should have been monitoring her iron all along!!!!!!! She’s going to have to take iron supplementation and also possibly have to go in for iron transfusions for a while to help get her iron levels maintained. And the lasix that her doctor put her on also made her potassium levels dangerously low!!!!!!! Even though she was taking potassium supplements, he should have been checking her blood levels to make sure she was getting enough!! So the key words for the day kiddies are BLOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!
I’m just glad that she’s ok. My mom is all I have left. I’ve been so afraid that I am going to lose her by the end of the year and I’ve been mentally preparing myself for it, but I’m so thankful to have this chance to still have her.
