BG Medical Random Question Thread

[arus2001]

Anyone familiar with the process to get classified as an official caretaker for your parent by the state? Started looking into SNAP/Medicaid stuff back in December and while Ohio has lightened up a bit on the whip cracking for employment qualification, I still want to get this on the books to potentially earn a little extra on the side since it's what I've been doing the past 18 years and regularly scheduled work still isn't quite on the table with house things we're still working through after my dad's death. Latest project being a needed overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. x.x

[synistar]

I'm my dad's conservator of person and estate. It's a fucking legal headache that I wish on no one. #FreeBritney

He can't even write a will unless we pay $10k in legal filings and I would have to pay my lawyer on top of that.

But that's probably not what you're looking at.

[kuronosan]

Anyone familiar with the process to get classified as an official caretaker for your parent by the state? Started looking into SNAP/Medicaid stuff back in December and while Ohio has lightened up a bit on the whip cracking for employment qualification, I still want to get this on the books to potentially earn a little extra on the side since it's what I've been doing the past 18 years and regularly scheduled work still isn't quite on the table with house things we're still working through after my dad's death. Latest project being a needed overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. x.x

Any social worker should be able to help, but it varies by state. You can always go to your local city hall and ask. It's not complicated, just lengthy.

[arus2001]

That's kind of the rub. The woman handling my case didn't know and ultimately threw a few phone numbers at me and told me lolgoodluck. I've tried calling, navigating through their web of automated shit, and even left a few messages here and there with no reply hoping I either hit home or could be pointed in the right direction. Google hasn't been helpful, either, as what I've found wasn't exactly clear on perspective of from the caretaker or someone seeking the outside caretaking.

[kuronosan]

I'll talk to the social workers on my team and see if they know.

[kuronosan]

They said you probably would consult an attorney.

[Meresgi]

*Summons Kuro*

Mom had her TCAR procedure done on Monday and back home. They went up through the groin and incision on neck to place a stent in the carotid artery. Doctor said everything was good but she's feeling some gas pain right now. O2 stat around 95ish. Blood pressure a little elevated but not super high (could just be stress of wondering if something is wrong). Hard to take a deep breath. Was able to have regular bowel movement after a couple days.

We're waiting on stepdad to come back from work since that's only vehicle before giving the hospital a call, it's about an hour away and she doesn't want to have to drive all the way there for nothing but trying to lookup common TCAR post op issues not finding anything really (also google is shit now so that doesn't help)

[kuronosan]

Biggest thing I'd be worried about is a mild pneumothorax versus embolism.

[Meresgi]

Thanks, thankfully no super shortness of breath or rapid breathing or blueish tint on any extremties. Told her to keep monitoring the pain when breathing and if it keeps worsening little by little over weekend to go get some scans done. Hopefully just some gas pains since sounds same as when I get some shortness of breath with bad gas.

[kuronosan]

Gas pain is to be expected since they have to dissect tissue open and then close it. It disseminates pretty quickly, but if it is worsening or it hurts more and more when breathing pneumothorax or pneumomediastinum is highest on the differential.

[Melena]

So, got my MRI results on my neck due to me having pain and numbness on my right hand, arm, and shoulder.

That was confirmed with a pinched nerve.

More concerning is they found a syrinx, and my GP has me rushed in for an MRI with contrast Thursday afternoon.

Anyone have experience with a spinal syrinx and what I can expect?

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

[kuronosan]

Hard to know what to expect until they do the contrast MRI. They may do surgery or they may do nothing.

[Meresgi]

So mom got 1st TCAR done last January and thing went well. She was out next day and some pain but recovered fine.

Went in for 2nd TCAR yesterday but her blood pressure dropped so they put her in ICU, they have her on drugs to keep her BP up but apparently dipped low enough to cause a minor heart attack last night at some point. So they will be keeping her an extra day in the ICU and running some tests.

Low BP for this long normal? I read it's normal after the procedure but it's going on about 24hrs now

[kuronosan]

It can be since the artery runs near the nerves that regulate heart rate and blood pressure. More important is to make sure they didn't nick anything and she's having a slow bleed as that would definitely drop her pressure.

[Meresgi]

It can be since the artery runs near the nerves that regulate heart rate and blood pressure. More important is to make sure they didn't nick anything and she's having a slow bleed as that would definitely drop her pressure.

Been at hospital all day today. Did an EKG and said it looked good. BP is not around 127-130/77-84 with some 90s/45-50s while sleeping. Dr said he could see her going home today but probably best to just do 1 more night in the ICU just incase. QVC is around 480-515 which had to look up what that meant. She had PVC counts of 10-22 yesterday where it didn't settle below maybe 8 or so, today it's showing 0 and at times maybe 1 or 2.

[kuronosan]

QTC is basically the recharge time between beats. In my experience it's an unreliable number unless carefully measured as most machines over report the time.

The presence of PVCs (ventricles firing out of sync) makes the number more questionable and it's reasonable for them to keep watching her until her rhythm centers stabilize.

[Meresgi]

Mom was discharged yesterday, she's home and healing up now. Got her EKG results back with the following:



The left ventricle stuff has her freaked out.

[kuronosan]

Her left ventricle isn't working as well. It's actually not that bad. The echo shows left wall restriction, which means it's having a rough time pumping through the rest of her body. The ejection fraction is around normal so it's overall fine.

[Meresgi]

Her left ventricle isn't working as well. It's actually not that bad. The echo shows left wall restriction, which means it's having a rough time pumping through the rest of her body. The ejection fraction is around normal so it's overall fine.

I wonder if it's party due to the blood pressure dropping and the minor heart attack before the echo was done? Either way trying to get her into see her cardiologist obviously, they said the next available is in August which I'm not ok with. She's trying to get with another one who saw her in the ICU and was very good, but I plan to call her current one Monday and make them give her an appointment sooner. She's off her beta blockers currently by order of the surgeon but she's had no direction on if she should begin taking them or what is going on

[Meresgi]

She also wanted me to ask, she has concerns that her surgeon actually didn't do this procedure but instead had someone else do it to learn the procedure. Said doctor was one that came into the ER and caused my mom to have a panic attack by suggesting the blood cuff on left arm might not be getting an accurate reading due to subclavian stenosis. Not the best bedside manner given she had just gotten done with a major surgery for stenosis in the carotid literally 5hrs ago and was in the ICU as a result of that...

I would assume her actual surgeon had done the surgery himself but not sure if, other then just asking him, there's a way to tell that?