Frailty and Strength

Mom's condition blends frailty and strength.  Overall, she is sound for her age.  But when you combine with emphysema, osteoporosis, and dementia, she has vulnerabilities that can not be ignored.

I mentioned that she did well yesterday.  She was able to travel outside the home and remain involved and alert.  Today, she got up and made it to the toilet on her own, despite things still not being back to normal from the looks of it.  She took her shower and shampoo well and put on her sweat pants herself without help from me.  She ate all of her breakfast.

But soon after eating, she began grabbing at her stomach.  I asked if she needed to go the bathroom again, based on what I'd seen earlier.  But that wasn't the issue.  I'd given her her weekly dosage of Fosamax this morning and as I thought about it, I wondered if it had been a mistake to give her the osteoporosis medication on a stomach that had not sustained much food over the last week.  It seems to me that was probably the case.

But I have no way of knowing unless the aching subsides within a few hours.  This has happened before - where the Fosamax has caused her extreme gastric discomfort.  In fact, that was how I realized she couldn't administer her own medication any more.  After falling and breaking her wrist and shoulder, she took an entire month's dosage at once.

So, I will continue to check on her today.  If she is not better by tomorrow, or substantially worse by tonight, I will conclude it was not the Fosamax, but a serious ulcer and she needs to be in ER or 1st Care.

Essentially, she is strong, but there are these three factors that always complicate her life, and my ability to pinpoint what is causing today's mini crisis, all of which makes it harder for her to stabilize.