An Unexpected Turn

Well, that ended on a weird note.

I took Mom to her doctor's appointment this morning. This one is her GP. Of course, she was up and down all night long ("Is it time to go, yet?") but she managed to get up and dressed in time to have breakfast and still be early to the appointment.

Which was a good thing because it was the first visit of the year with this doc so his staff had to spend ten minutes making sure all Mom's records were updated.

The only anomaly was her blood pressure which was high. We don't know whether that's a permanent change (it was low last time) or just a temporary spike due to the stress of two appointments in two days and the second one in the morning and being up half the night worrying about not getting up in time.

So the doctor takes a look at her BP readings and says, "Does she have a living will?" "Yes." "Does she have a DNR on file?" "Yes, I believe so." I know she has a Do Not Resuscitate order but whether or not it is on record with the appropriate people--all that was done long before I moved down here.

"You might want to tape it to the refrigerator, where they can see it," he says.

What just happened?

He gives me an open authorization for a blood and urinalysis work-up at the hospital and tells me to order it if I see a sudden deterioration in her cognitive functions. I mention having to give her step-by-step instructions on how to dress herself these past couple of days, but that, apparently, is not a serious enough decline.

It seems the doc is unable to just come out and say that the high blood pressure, if it continues, may cause her to have a fatal stroke. As warnings go, that was pretty subtle. Would someone else, who isn't the child of a nurse, get the point?

I've informed my brother. I'll look for a copy of the DNR later.