Sometimes Best Not To Know

The best thing that happened to Bob this week was he turned 84.

Otherwise this has not been a good week for him. Sometimes it's best not to know things. In spite of his limitations there's one thing he can do and that's find the results of his lab work on the computer. He had blood drawn this week before seeing his hematologist next week. He called me to the computer to see the results. There was a lot of red (low) on that report, more than usual. He's always kept his hematology reports clipped together but now he can't find them.  I would need to compare those reports with this last one to have a better idea what may be going on. Our biggest concern is the platelet count and it had dropped several points.

This is what I object to about immediately being able to see test results. As patients we think we have to know everything.  I don't think so. At least not immediately. Now here we sit with this report and no qualified medical person to explain it.

I have chosen not to worry until after he sees the doctor next week. Bob is concerned and there's not a lot I can do to ease his mind. We would have been better off not knowing before seeing the doctor. Bob may well be wasting a lot of good worry time.

The coffeemaker situation is still unresolved. He was no better operating the new coffee pot. That also ended in frustration. Daughter is sending him the least complicated Keurig made. Hopefully just off/on and press one button. I couldn't buy it because he would have been upset but she can send it to him as a gift and he'll think she's just wonderful.

He's flooded the new ice maker twice. It's hard to see the fill line. This morning I took a black magic marker and drew a line where he is supposed to stop with the water.

____________________________

It's possible to go without air conditioning here. We don't have too many really hot days. I'm just a wimp and choose not to run a chance on being hot.

Our jihadist recycling son who's busy saving the earth has chosen not to have air conditioning in their home. They use ceiling fans and other things but don't have an air conditioning unit.

Grandson has a cello lesson in the morning so I received a text from son asking if they could meet the teacher here for his lesson since it would be cool at our place.

I'm all for keeping the cello player cool but it means I've got to leave the house and entertain grandpa the duration of the lesson. My choice would be a coffee shop to relax, maybe read a newspaper or magazine. Sorry that won't work, Bob would be up in ten minutes wanting to know if it's all right for us to return home.

The only thing I've been able to come up with is grocery shopping. I try very hard to stay out of grocery stores on the week-ends to give working people space to shop. I may have to go against my convictions in the morning.

Tale Of The Lowly Aspirin

Do you know anyone that's not taking 81mg of Aspirin, or at least not had their doctor suggest taking it?

Not so long ago Bob was in the emergency room with a bleeding issue. He's one of those guys that eats up a lot of time for hospital staff, he's 83 with a long medical history and takes a lot of medicine. Drives them nuts.

He's a heart patient on both warfarin (blood thinner) and Aspirin 81mg, prescribed by his cardiologist.  Oops, a problem.  He also sees a hematologist because he has a very low platelet count. Hmmmm  Makes no sense to take blood thinners if you have a low platelet count, right?  Wrong, it does.  Fortunately the cardiologist and hematologist have reached a compromise, something Congress is unable to do these days, and the two of them know what they're doing.  The emergency room doctor did not.

a) The emergency room doctor told him to stop taking the aspirin until he saw his geriatrician first of the week.

b) His geriatrician said aspirin lowers the platelet count in older adults so he should stay off the aspirin.

c) The cardiologist was mad because they had meddled in his business changing what he had prescribed for his patient.  His opinion was 81 mg of aspirin did not lower the platelet count that much.

d) His hematologist is a peace loving man, wants to get along with everybody so he said "Yes, but......."

Now what's a person to do?  I figured it this way.  If his heart stops beating it won't matter about his platelet count.  He's back on 81 mg of aspirin.  The cardiologist is happy.