Rough Patch for Mom

Well, it seems my mom can't seem to catch a break. Her back pain is still with her and as bad as ever. She is having a difficult time getting around moving very slowly and using a combination of her walker and cane even inside her house.

On Monday we took her to her first physical therapy appointment. They did some massage which seemed to help temporarily. And they added a little to her existing stretching routine. Next she went to see someone at her doctor's office. We thought they were going to give her a shot, but it turns out the pain is moving around. Two weeks before it was on her left side, now it is on the right. Before that it was in her hip, now it is in her back. So they don't think a shot will help. They gave her some pain meds which so far have not helped. It could be she has so many contributing factors to this pain that it may be difficult to get it under control.

After the doctor appointment they sent her off to get a full set of x-rays from her hip all the way up her back. They wanted to do an MRI which would show soft tissue issues too, but they can't do that if she has metal in her body. She has an artificial hip and we're not sure if it contains metal. That's quite possible. Hopefully the x-rays will tell us more about that.

When we were getting out of the car at the doctor's office I noticed the lower lid of her right eye was especially red and quite swollen. I had the nurse practitioner look at it and explained Mom had a nasty eye infection there just a couple months ago. She wasn't sure by looking at it if Mom just had a sty or if her infection was returning. So she advised warm compresses and said if it got worse she would need to go on antibiotics. Sure enough, last night Mom reported that it was a lot worse and it "looked like someone punched her in the face!"

Since she was just seen on Monday her doctors were able to prescribe her some antibiotics (drops and pills) for the eye infection without another visit. Our dear friend Sue was kind enough to pick up the medicine and deliver it to Mom this evening.

Whew, that would be a lot for anyone to go through at once, but I feel bad that my 83 year old mother is suffering this way. I think her eye will soon be on the way to healing and I pray the same is true for her back.