Wednesday, April 29, 2020
In news of a personal note, my son had to be admitted to the hospital today. He’s been struggling with several significant health problems. He has rheumatoid arthritis which has destroyed both his hips (the doctors say they look like the hips of an 80 year old). He’ll need them replaced, but the doctors won’t do that until they diagnose his stomach issues. He’s had vomiting and diarrhea for months and after going through every other medical cause, they believe he has Crohn’s Disease or IBS, but can’t tell without a GI scope. Of course we couldn’t get the scope because it is an “elective” procedure and they cancelled all of those due to COVID-19. I know he’s not the only one with health issues that has been affected by this pandemic, but he’s MY one and it’s killing me to see him so skinny, weak and in pain. On top of those two things, his body’s so worn down that he’s been getting cellulitis (skin infection) in his feet and has to have IV antibiotics daily to stop the infection.
The other way the pandemic affects me is that I can’t be with him in the hospital. Previously, when he’s been admitted, I went with him and stayed with him most of the time. Now, they won’t even let me in the hall. He’s called several times from the hospital, near tears because he’s lonely, fearful and in tremendous pain and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s so very hard. If I could take from him all those complaints I would bear them willingly. A 19 year old boy/man should not have to deal with any of that!
I’ve been walking about five miles a day (for me it is 11,261 steps) just to burn off my nervous energy. It helps me sleep, sort of, but I don’t think I’ll be sleeping very much tonight--worried about my son!
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