Try, Try Again

SO we've been having some little medical issues around the house the last two weeks and for a change it's not my behind or neck. Although I am still see doctors routinely for both.

No, it's been Papa. Two weeks ago he told me his jaw was sore and he thought he felt a bump. Oh no! Really, I said, you'd better check in with the doctor. But as before with the "heart attack", come Monday when the doctor's office opened, he said he felt OK and wasn't calling. This time instead of calling those close to him and tattling, I started researching "things" on the internet (I know, bad, bad Grammy) and sending him what I was finding.

After only an hour or so, he calls me and said he had a doctor appointment the next day. Well on Tuesday his doc seemed very concerned and didn't see evidence of a "bump". He called it an assymetrical mass on one side and he could definitely see it. Of course, after relaying this information, Papa refused to let me see him head on for any length of time so I could investigate.

Doc sent him for a CT scan, the sooner the better, and so the appointment was made for Thursday morning. (I was just thanking God that I had bought travel insurance.)

CT Scan was accomplished and, of course, they don't tell Papa any diagnosis. Thankfully early Friday morning the doc called and said it was just a bacterial infection in his jaw and around the salivatory glands and gave him a heavy duty antibiotic to take 4x a day for a couple of weeks and a refill tacked on and TO FINISH ALL THE MEDICINE. "Oh, and how is your aspirin therapy going?" Well that was a new one. After Papa's last round of bloodwork, I noticed in addition to his cholesterol being high, that he was pre-hypertensive and wondered if they were going to put him on the aspirin a day plan but no mention of it. Obviously they did mention it and either Papa didn't pay attention or he "forgot."

Ok, fast forward to this week and Papa had a three year routine colonoscopy scheduled. His father had colon cancer and at Papa's first procedure, 10 polyps were found, five being pre-cancerous so "you must come back in three years." We checked and rechecked and the antibiotics mentioned above as well as the aspirin and cholesterol meds were all allowed to be continued while prepping for this procedure.

Papa was a little more relieved, a different prep was being used than what he had to ENDURE the last time. So long story short, no cheating on food (I was the supreme food nazi), his prep liquids were consumed and the pooping commensed and all was well, so the next day off to the doc's office we went for the procedure.

Afterward, while we were sitting in the recovery room, the doc came in with some "bad news"....could only view the bottom half of the colon because the top half was...well, you know...not empty. We discussed all this and it could be that Papa ate too heavily on Tuesday, his last day of solid food. Maybe the antibiotic caused a little stopping up. Maybe the new prep wasn't as effective as the last one. Of course, later on that evening, Papa blamed the doctor as being at fault (no details as of why this blame) but continuing on this thread my jello was also thrown in as being at fault. See what I'm dealing with!

Anyway, bottom line, we have to repeat this whole process again in SIX MONTHS and go back to using the original prep, and to limit food to soups only on his last solid food day.

Maybe I'll just stay in the tropics until September when this procedure is over and come home.

Collecting once again for a Grammy fund!
Until next time....