Health Challenges

I think it is time to discuss some challenges our family is facing with Mom's health. It's not that any of this is a secret to relatives or those of you who live locally, but the time is right to catch the rest of you up.

To begin, Mom's ankle is healing nicely. The orthopedic surgeon has been keeping a close eye on this and has been pleased with her progress, and we are seeing her walking improve each week. For example, we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel last night and Mom used the walker the whole time as she did when we went out on Sunday. She returns for a four week checkup on Tuesday. We’re hoping she can chunk the boot by the end of the month.

As inconvenient as a broken ankle is Mom’s real challenge has been her left knee which had been giving her trouble for some time before she fell. You may recall that Mom had her right knee replaced back in 2005. Unfortunately it was her right ankle that she broke last month forcing the already bad left knee to take more punishment. I think anyone who has had any sort of knee issues knows that it doesn’t matter how strong your leg is, if you’re having problems in that joint it’s just hard to push off or up with that leg. The last time Mom went in for an ankle check she asked the doctor to x-ray her left knee. He confirmed our suspicions when he said, “Yep, it looks just as bad has the right one did before I replaced it.” So, we may be looking at another replacement down the road.

Mom does have another issue of more immediate concern. Back in the fall Mom went to her dentist complaining of a sore in her top gum. To make a long story short, she has now been referred up to a third specialist with a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma in her mouth. The two major causes for this type of mouth cancer are regular use of tobacco or alcohol. This really stinks because Mom falls within that really small group of people who have never done either of this things but simply get the cancer due to plain bad luck as far as we know now. (When the doctor asked to verify with Mom that she had never consumed alcohol I wanted to break in and say, “Here sits a woman who changed grocery stores when the store she regularly shopped at first began stocking beer.”)

Mom had been in for a biopsy two doctors ago. This proved to be hard to read though it eventually came back positive for cancer. (She was getting ready to go learn this news the morning she fell and broke her ankle.) On Wednesday we went to see a head and neck cancer surgeon at Vanderbilt. When he had done a visual exam he found several points of interest he wanted to explore before deciding on a course of action. So, the next step is to go in next week for another biopsy where multiple tissue samples will be taken allowing him to map out what’s going on in Mom’s mouth. We do know that Mom will be facing some invasive oral surgery in the next three or four weeks but the doctor, while trying to prepare Mom for some bad things to come, dodged all questions about specifics until he can read the results from next week’s biopsy.

Please keep Mom in your prayers. She is facing some tough times ahead.

Joe