Need to know?

September 26, 2002

Hi

Fred finally got to go to the gastro dr this last week. He has put Fred on Miralax and Prevacid. Then he wants to do a colonoscopy, and using colyte. What I need to kow is about the colonoscopy. Is there anything I need to know when he has this done, that I need to let the doctor know.?

Thanks Vera

September 27, 2002

Vera;

When a colonoscopy was suggested for Ken, his Gasterenterologist

consulted with his Neurologist and his Internist and opted to do a

Sigmoidoscopy instead because he would use no sedation for that. get all his

doctors to talk it over together before doing it. Three heads are better than

one in cases like this. if you have trouble talking them into it, just tell

them your worries, and they are more likely to consult. Sometimes the threat

of later action on your part if something goes wrong and they didn't consult

if you asked them to will make them more willing to talk to one another. In

our case, all our doctors were always ready and anxious to consult with each

other. They all considered the fact that Ken was even alive after so many

years somewhat of a miracle, and they worked hard at keeping it that way.

It was good to talk to you yesterday, and I will miss seeing

everybody, but I was wondering about the smoke in your area. I hope it lets

up a bit now that the heat wave seems to be subsiding. A little rain would be

nice, but that is just a dream here isn't it?

As I said on the phone, the only solution ever found to keep ken from

falling so often was to hire full-time ken watchers who were to be at his

side at all times and never let him stand and walk without someone with him.

Even then, as I told you, he was able to get up and walk around and fall if

his helper so much as went to the toilet. he could never be left alone for

even five minutes. In the hospital they always tied him down both in bed and

in his wheelchair and he was able to tip the wheelchair over if they didn't

watch. This is one of the worst problems with this BP deviating. If ken got

up slowly after moving his arms around a bit, he could stay upright, but if

he got up suddenly, he ALWAYS passed out. So, he could walk if someone saw to

it that he did the exercising first, but if we weren't watching, he just

stood up and passed out. Of course, he passed out almost every time he tried

to make a bowel movement, and then, someone just sat by him and held him

until he came to.

Love, Barbara

September 27, 2002

Vera,

When Rob had his colonoscopy it took more prep to cleanse the bowel than "normal". So Fred might need to drink more of the "golightly" stuff than most people. He will be lying down for the procedure, so if his bp tends to go up when he lies down you should mention that too so they don't panic.