RE: Mom and Dad

You pretty much had changed the diet portion because most of the food was affecting you, so it won't be too much of a change. The lifting thing, that limits the grandchildren that you can carry, but since most of them are old enough to walk, you should be okay there as well. Now, carrying Dad on your back while taking him to the neighbors so that he can do service, will just have to stop. And the burdens of your life need to be put on someone else's shoulders...other than that...I think you are all set.


Seriously, I am glad that it isn't cancer. We have seen to much suffering from this among our loved ones.
Mel


I am very glad that it isn't cancer, even though it still isn't a bed of roses.  Please, you and Tim take it easy and follow the doctors' advice - Tim can heal and hopefully you can respond to the treatment without further procedures.  It sounds as though you have everything in hand. (Listen to Mel!!)
We love you both, and please keep us informed as you get better!  :)
Dave Childs

More Fun for the Old Folks at Home

LHT fell again and broke four ribs again. It is on the same side, the left side, that he has broken three times before this. He had just finished snowplowing the whole neighborhood and our driveway. He then decided to go into the garage and get some ice melt to sprinkle on the driveway and oops! He fell on his side and just laid there for a minute. It took him until the next day to decide he needed to go to the doctor. Sure enough, there were four broken ribs. It takes about six weeks to heal. It's a good thing that Jim's dad came down to help drive to California. I don't think LHT could have made it. He has had a lot of pain. Luckily for him, one of our new neighbors across the street has a plow attached to a truck and he has been doing the street side as we got nothing but slush and smush out of the last storm. LHT has been doing the sidewalks and driveways but the little plow on our 4-wheeler works just fine. Of course, pain or no pain, he has continued to do the sidewalks and driveways of every widow, widower and sick person that he knows.

I don't have cancer. If the doctors keep playing with my emotions like this, if, or when, I get cancer I won't believe them. I had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. The bottom half looks great "for a woman of my age." The top half, not so great. At any rate, I do have esophageal lesions from acid reflux but they may be treated without surgery. That was what was causing me to vomit so often and to have diarrhea. That is why blood was coming. So, as a result of the two inside peeks Dr. Anderson made, he knows, as if we didn't already have record of it, that I have GERD. When Dr. Tatton prescribed the meds he gave me the average dose and, for quite a while, I thought it was working. Then I started being sick at least once or twice a week. I have to take Prilosec two times a day, rather than once a day because that treatment wasn't working. That gives me 40 mg daily. As for the hiatal hernia, Dr. Anderson, who is a surgeon, said he prefers to try and treat before operating. He saves that procedure for the last ditch and tries several approaches first. 

He told me that a hiatal hernia is a condition in which the upper portion of the stomach protrudes into the chest cavity through an opening of the diaphragm called the esophageal hiatus. This opening usually is large enough to accommodate the esophagus alone. With weakening and enlargement however, the opening (or herniation) can allow upward passage or even entrapment of the upper stomach above the diaphragm. Hiatal hernia is a common condition. By age 60, up to 60 percent of people have it to some degree. I am not so bad that my stomach stays up.

Suspected causes or contributing factors to a hernia are: obesity, poor seated posture (such as slouching), frequent coughing, straining with constipation, pregnancy and childbirth, frequent bending over or heavy lifting, heredity, smoking and congenital defects. I'll give you one guess what caused mine and if you say childbirth I'll laugh because I think it is heredity. Of course, I do my fair share of slouching over the computer.

Lifestyle changes are often necessary to avoid symptoms of hiatal hernia. He said I should minimize heavy lifting, straining, bending over, improve my seated posture and not slouch, exercise more, lose weight, sleep on an incline with the head of the bed raised 4-6 inches on blocks and choose standing activities after a meal rather than sitting or reclining. I am to avoid the following: caffeine, chocolate (oh, no! UGH!!!!!), fried or fatty foods, peppermint, alcohol (don't use it anyway), citrus foods, tomatoes, meals within 2-3 hours of bedtime, large meals (eat smaller meals more frequently) and smoking (not a problem since I don't smoke). I also get to eat Metamucil wafers twice a day because they help cut the acid.

Shawn said:

Sorry to hear your news. Kimberly just got back from the doctor also, she broke her 5^th metatarsal when she rolled her foot last night. She has been wearing a Velcro-boot contraption that acts like a splint. She can take it off for a bath, but it is supposed to be on the rest of the time until the bone heals.

 We have been having fun this week. Sorina just started on antibiotics for strep yesterday, and Dane was already on them for an ear infection.


Kimberly said:

Not like a cancer scare or even breaking 4 ribs!  I’m in a lovely Velcro boot for six weeks minimum and on crutches, which may kill me.  But not too much pain, just a really strong desire to stretch and flex my foot.  And Shawn sleeps in fear that I will take him our with my steel boot.