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I'm Caregiver for my wife Lola 75/8. I wrote to introduce us several mon= ths ago and have been a regular lurker at this site and the CG site ever sinc= e. From this lurking I learned of Capsaicin 0.075% for muscle pain and, af= ter checking with our Doctor, we are now using it with good results. I also learned to be more cautious to separate intake of SINIMENT and food. We retired in =9192, about the time Lola was diagnosed as PWP. We sold = our house and bought a good size motorhome and agreed we would travel full-ti= me for at lease the next three years. As the time passed while we were trave= ling the 48 states and Canada, Lola gradually got tired quicker and she was finding it more difficult to keep her balance. She had a couple bad fall= s, but no serious damage, however, in =9196 she said we'd better get an apar= tment, which we did. We still thought we would get to motorhome some, for we bo= th enjoyed that life. Than last winter Lola had a slight stoke affecting he= r speech and walking. She was doing fairly well toward working out of that problem when she developed a serious bleeding stomach ulcer. She was in intensive care for a couple days and lost a lot of blood, her weight went down to less than 90 lbs. from a usual of around 130-140. They had her o= n tube feeding, which I continued for several weeks after she came home. S= he has slowly gained some weight so she is now up to 103 lb. She was 124lb = when I married her 51 years ago. Back before all of this, Lola's Doctors went for months trying to diagnos= e her ailments and they usually wrote, depression. All her symptoms persis= ted including bad stomach pains and insufferable headaches. They gave her ma= ny tests for various ailments but found nothing that would cause her to have= the symptoms. With Doctor's suggestion in =9186 we went to John Hopkins Hosp= ital, Baltimore MD for a complete physical. We came away with depression being= the diagnose. Lola was given various drugs for depression, the only one I ca= n remember is Prozac, (which I just read was first approved for use in Dec.= =9187 ) which she still takes. During these days (prior to traveling) Lola, our neighbor and I had a walk-at-the-mall ritual. We were pretty good at the routine for over a year. I didn't think much about it at the time, but L= ola gradually started to tire out on us. She would sit down and wait for us = to come around and then finish with us. Also, she was having a hard time remembering things, (but don't we all). I remember noticing she had developed a peculiar swing in her arms. Anyway, we are now really settled down in our apartment and living with P= D. Since she returned from the hospital following her ulcer and weight loss= , it has been a hard time. We got rid of the tube feeding by my promising to = keep her on a high calorie diet. You know in this day and age of weight watch= ers, it's hard for a "bachelor" cook to find easy to serve high calorie foods. Our children, including daughters-in-law, take turns coming in with dine= r on Mon., Wed. and Fri. They usually fix enough for a meal the next day. For a couple weeks after Lola return from the hospital she was not able t= o even raise her right leg while laying in bed. Working with the physical therapist, (who come three times a week) she gradually got back the use o= f most of her muscles. But I guess the loss of weight and muscle were pret= ty much tied together. She complains that her back, hips and legs hurt all = the time and sometimes worse ( that's where the Capsaicin came to use) . This pain along with her loss of muscle makes it hard for her to walk. We hav= e worked up to where I can take her hands and lead her while we walk from t= he BR to the LR. We make that round trip about twice a day and think we've = done something. Medicare gave us a wheel chair which we use when we go out to visit the kids, going grocery shopping and occasionally to eat. Our loss of speech communication is what hurts the most. It is not that = she can't talk, it is that she cannot get the words together. She starts out= to ask a question, than stops because she has forgot what she wanted to know. (But again, how many of us has gone into the next room only to wonder wh= at is was we wanted after we got there.) I asked our Neuro if he thought it= was the stroke or PD that gave her the speech/memory problem. He though it = was some of both. She is improving some, particularly at certain times. We = met an neighbor at the mailbox today and Lola had a good conversation with hi= m.=20 Now for the little things. Her eyesight gives her trouble. The new glas= ses don't help much. She cries a lot, but doesn't know why. She pats the be= d sheets and pillows, can't stand a wrinkle. She enjoys the health care la= dies who bath her, (three times a week) but gets mad when we wake her for a ba= th. She sleeps well, 50% of daylight hours and most all night. Gets me up t= wo or three times a night to help her to the toilet. (I need to go anyway) = Once in a while she does not make it, but I needed to change the bed anyway. = When she first came home from hospital, she had to wear those depends whatchamacallits, but she gradually has gotten away from them. Following are the drugs she gets as of the last Doctor visit, it changes = at each visit and sometimes in between. (1) Carbidop/levodopa 25/100; 1 @ 7A, 11A, 3P, 7P (2) Sinement CR 50/200; 1/2 @ 9A, & 1/2 @ 5P (3) Prozak 20 mg, 1 @bfst and @ diner=20 (4) Florinef 0.1 mg, 1 @ bfst and @ diner (5) Daypro 600 mg, 1 @bfst and @ diner (6) Ecotrin 325 mg (aspirin), one@BFST every other day (7) Propacet, 1 @ 11A, 1 @ 5 P (8) Trazodone 50 mg,1/2 @ BFST+ 1-1/2 @ Diner (9) Mcl 20% elix potassium chloride; 2 teaspoons @ bfst and @ diner (11) MIACALCN nasal spray 200 iu/dose, one spray per day, alt side (12) ZOSTRIX salve twice a day, follow bfst and lunch.