Fogbow

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:32 pm

Edit: Ah. They have 30g protein low-sugar shakes. Hmmm.

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:01 pm I'm in the St. Louis area with Mrs. Shizzle checking in on my 90 year old dad again. Things haven't been going well over the last year or so and more recently my dad has had some issues with falling. We thought we were coming over to help get my dad setup with an assisted living facility. However, things seem to have changed fairly dramatically.

My dad has a completely incompetent doctor but we've had no luck getting him to switch. His doctor's answer to any ailments has been "It's just old age". He's been having increasing trouble with balance, strength and mobility for at least a few years. But it's just old age. Lacking a useful doctor we've started throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. My dad eats like a bird and is pretty thin. My primary concern over the last few years has been to try to get him eating more. I'm over to see him at least once a month and have a pretty good idea of what he eats. I've spent the last year trying to get him to eat more, but it turns out that was a mistake. About a month ago I had an epiphany. I looked at his diet and suddenly realized there's no possible way he was getting the minimum 50 grams of protein a day. So, three weeks ago we came over and put him on a high protein diet.

The difference this week is astonishing. He was using a cane to get around the house three weeks ago and now he rarely needs it. Earlier this week he trimmed all the bushes along the front of the house in one afternoon. He hasn't been able to do that in at least two years. For the last several months it's taken him 4 or 5 tries to get up out of a chair. Now he does it the first time, every time. It's still hesitant and slow but he manages it. In addition, his balance is greatly improved, he's more alert and he falls asleep less during the day. And this change is just in the space of three weeks.

We put up more high protein food in his freezer this week, bought him a bunch of high protein snacks and fed him a whole lot of beef over the last few days. We're still doing research on assisted living facilities and even visited one this week, but I no longer see it as an urgent task on my list. Instead, I'm looking at building a new step with a landing that will make it easier to get in and out of the back door to his patio where he likes to sit and read the paper in the morning. It'll be interesting to see how he's doing in a few more weeks. I just regret not figuring out the protein issue earlier.

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:32 pm I had a colonoscopy a while back, and this stuff helped get me through fasting. Pricey but might help supplement solid foods. I'll have to see if another supplier has more flavors.

Edit: Ah. They have 30g protein low-sugar shakes. Hmmm.

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:18 am Wow! Glad you figured it out. Think he will be open to changing doctors now?

Danraft wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 6:39 am (This is purely anecdotal. I am not a doctor and do not play one on TV. But, your story does make an old memory bubble up…)

When statins first became commonly prescribed it was heralded as a great success and my father was put on them (I don’t remember which, probably one of the first gen ones like Lipitor). My mother called me and asked if I could come visit the next weekend because there was something different with Dad— he was tiring easily (just going to the mail box was something that required him to stop because of muscle weakness) and was somewhat mentally confused and would do things like repeat a joke that he had just told…

Upon reviewing what was different, the statin prescription was one thing… Looking it up on the innertubes, the reported occasional side effects included similar sounding effects. It turned out that the prescription was the wrong dosage (an order of magnitude larger IIRC). The dosage was reduced (and put on a supplement of CoQ10) and he bounced back to normal.

Azastan wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 9:56 am It's not quite 7 am here in the sunny Pacific Northwest, but it's already 64 degrees F with 100, yes one hunnert! per cent humidty. Never seen that before unless it's actually raining LOL. Supposed to be in the mid 90s today.

bill_g wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 10:11 am

Azastan wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 9:56 am It's not quite 7 am here in the sunny Pacific Northwest, but it's already 64 degrees F with 100, yes one hunnert! per cent humidty. Never seen that before unless it's actually raining LOL. Supposed to be in the mid 90s today.

It's 70 on our back porch, and the air is thick enough to bath in.

Patagoniagirl wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 2:05 pm I'll try to keep this short. Mom has a tumor in her upper right lung. She just 83 this week. After a PET scan, she saw an oncologist who ordered a biopsy. It was a difficult ordeal with some complications. We waited three weeks to see him again only to bee told there wasn't sufficient tissue to confirm whether or not it is cancer. She refuses to have another biopsy. The oncologist wants to start her on radiation anyway. I find that very odd. Is that a common protocol?

Conclusion: The oncological outcomes were similar in patients with early lung cancer treated with SBRT with or without biopsy-confirmation. In situations where tissue diagnosis is not feasible or unsafe, it is not unreasonable to offer SBRT [stereotactic body radiotherapy] based on clinical and radiological suspicion following multidisciplinary discussions.

Patagoniagirl wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 2:05 pm I'll try to keep this short. Mom has a tumor in her upper right lung. She just 83 this week. After a PET scan, she saw an oncologist who ordered a biopsy. It was a difficult ordeal with some complications. We waited three weeks to see him again only to bee told there wasn't sufficient tissue to confirm whether or not it is cancer. She refuses to have another biopsy. The oncologist wants to start her on radiation anyway. I find that very odd. Is that a common protocol?

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 2:47 pm If the doctor sensed that your mom would be a resistant patient, too, aside from it being protocol, he might have decided to save her some anger and anguish.

If I may ask, pgirl, what led to the PET scan?

MELBOURNE, Australia — The case is cloaked in mystery.

In June, the bodies of two young Saudi sisters were found in separate bedrooms of the apartment they shared in Sydney, Australia. The remains had gone undiscovered for a month. There were no visible signs of injury, and the home showed no sign of forced entry. The police deemed the deaths suspicious.

Nearly two months after the discovery, the authorities still know little about the women, even after an extensive investigation in which they spoke to many people in the neighborhood. The women, the police said, “seemed to keep to themselves.” It also remains unclear how they died, though an autopsy has been performed.

Stymied, the police took another step this week in hopes of finding new clues: They revealed the identities of the women as Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23. The sisters arrived in Australia from Saudi Arabia in 2017, the police said.

“We’re appealing for information because we don’t know a lot about the girls,” Detective Inspector Claudia Allcroft said at a news conference. The case is unusual, she said, because the cause of death remains unknown, and the women “were 23 and 24 years old, and they have died together in their home.”