A Visit to the Doctor's

Right now, the results of the visit are ambiguous; the Doctor thought my mother-in-law's rosea (light pink skin rash) on her nose and forehead was skin cancer. I had to tell him it comes and goes with her moods; he offered her prescription creams for it, she declined. He wanted to put her back on blood thinners which she had stopped when her eye became infected last year; it was decided he would wait until after the next visit to the eye specialist in April. The matriarch would really prefer not to have to take blood thinners and endure the concomitant weekly or bi-weekly blood tests and quarterly visits to the doctor. He argued everything now was about quality of life; then why did he ask her about skin cancer? Even if it was skin cancer? What could they do for a ninety-eight year old? Put her through tests and discomfort? If everything is about quality of life, why discuss anything that could scare the dickens out of her?

My husband and I don't want my mother-in-law to go back on blood thinners; we certainly don't want her to have a stroke but, with blood thinners, every move is more dangerous than the last. A simple fall could be catastrophic; she did have one last year and was able to just pick herself up again. Blood thinners make such an act less likely and every hard move, slight bang against her hand for example, leaves a bruise. I know she likes to go out but every visit to a medical clinic is a chance encounter with colds, pneumonia, germs. If the matriarch has a stroke, we'll have to deal with it. Being completely honest, it has never occurred to me that she could have a stroke; she hasn't had one yet, so why be really worried? My husband was more surprised by her regular blood pressure what with her routine diet of breakfast, chips, Werthers' caramels, lunch, chips, Werthers' caramels, and dinner, chips, Werthers' caramels, dessert, fruit, and who knows what else the woman eats in the middle of the night. One would think she would be diabetic or suffering from high blood pressure--not the matriarch. As for the memory pills, we'll skip that discussion...