Late last month we saw the neurologist in Pensacola so we
can go over the blood tests involving the “Tubes From Venus”. To recap, we wanted to check her glutathione
levels and whether they are normal.
Glutathione is an anti-oxidant produced by everybody that helps with
memory. It also helps prevent damage
caused by heavy metals. To cut to the
chase, Carol’s glutathione levels came back as “normal”. Until now, he’s had Carol on two meds [Donepezil
and Quetiapine]. After our visit this
week, he added a third - Memantine HCL.
The neurologist has her on three meds. The doctor said for her to take these a
bedtime:
Donepezil [aka
Aricept®] - Prevents the breakdown of acetylcholine in the brain. Acetylcholine
is a compound which occurs throughout the nervous system, in which it functions
as a neurotransmitter. She started at
one 5mg pill/day, but has since increased to a 10mg pill/daily.
Quetiapine [Seroquel®]
– Antipsychotic. This one is primarily
used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or
disordered thought). These are very tiny
pills – just a little bigger than a period that you would see on this page.
Memantine HCL
[Namenda®] - Blocks the toxic effects associated with excess glutamate and
regulates glutamate activation. Glutamate is a powerful excitatory
neurotransmitter that is released by nerve cells in the brain. It is
responsible for sending signals between nerve cells, and under normal
conditions it plays an important role in learning and memory. The exact dosage escapes me at the moment,
but it is such that we have to take a month in order for her to get up to the
daily dosage that the doctor wants her on.
For the first week, she took one per day. We’re in week two, now she’s up to twice
daily. There will be another increase on
Saturday.
The neurologist spent some time trying to convince Carol
that the “tree people” she sees don’t exist.
I told him that I avoid arguments on that matter by simply telling her
that I can’t see them. I gave up trying
to convince her the people aren’t real, so to avoid any arguments or anything
that would make her feel bad, I just tell her that I don’t doubt that she sees
them, just that I can’t. I don’t deny
their existence, but try to reassure her that as long as they remain outside in
their tree kingdom, we’re fine. One time I asked her what they look like. She told me they look like hippies with
different colors of hair. Luckily we
don’t have to deal with the smell of patchouli oil. Sometimes they sing songs. I asked if they sang anything I would know,
but she told me “no”. The thing that
really annoys her is our new next-door neighbor. The guy who lives there is pretty cool. He’s
quiet and keeps to himself. He has a dog
who really likes Carol, and she likes him.
It’s the guy’s wife who annoys her.
She’s loud, and that’s her only volume.
There is some really good news on the home front. The adult day care folks I hired worked out very
well. Carol likes them. She told me that each person who came to sit
with her wanted to help with laundry and other housework. Carol just enjoyed the company and was very
glad to have them around, especially after the sun went down. Those are the times that worry her. I am supposed to go TDY to Indiana for a
week. Mark has quit his job, pending his
return to school in January, so I may not have to utilize the adult day care
for this trip. I’m kind of conflicted here
– I don’t want to saddle him with looking after his mother while he’s on a
break between work and school, but I’m not sure I want to stick a crowbar in my
wallet and fund Home Instead for another week.
But after he returns to school in January, I have another trip [this one
to Northern California] for two weeks, and I’ll definitely need them.
There is one thing that startled me the other day. After Carol finished chemotherapy for breast
cancer almost three years ago, I had to put her in the hospital for a week and
she has no memory of it. In March 2017
she did her sixth and final round of chemo [once every three weeks, you can do
the math]. Not only did the chemo take
all of her hair, it took her fingernails as well [they’ve since grown
back]. She called me at work to tell me
she was freezing. This is a normal thing
for her since she is the type who would be cold if she was sitting on the
surface of the Sun. This time it was
different. I could hear her shivering on
the phone, and she told me she needed me to come home right away. I hurried home, and we both decided it would
be a good thing to pay the ER a visit.
After spending a few hours at the ER, the doctor on duty
decided to admit her. She had an
infection. “Infection” is not a word you
want to hear when your wife has a compromised immune system. While the hospital staff administered
round-the-clock antibiotics, it took them a while to determine the source of
her infection. It turned out that she
had cat scratch fever. Until then, I thought
it was just a Ted Nugent song, but it’s a real thing. She didn’t get scratched by any of the five
cats. She got it through the fingertips
that had no fingernails. After a week,
the hospital discharged her, but we had to see an infectious diseases doctor
for IV antibiotics for 28 straight days.
Last week I told her all about it, but she told me she doesn’t remember
a thing about it. She remembers going
through chemo, and she remembers the radiation therapy she had to endure [33
treatments]. Although her antibiotic
regimen overlapped with her radiation therapy, she remembers one but not the
other.
Maybe it's just as well she forgot about her hospital stay...
