I took mom to the doctor yesterday and realize why she doesn’t go to him – he told her she has to quit drinking and smoking if she wants to get better. He looked at me and said, “You need to take care of yourself, no pills are going to make you better, if you want to feel good you have to take responsibility for what you eat, nutrition is very important. And having a glass of wine is very different from drinking all day and you should quit smoking.” I said, “Why are you looking at me, I know all of that already.”
He told her she needs to see a kidney, lung, heart, blood doctor. That her red cells are up, her kidney levels are up, her everything is up. The only thing she doesn’t have is diabetes, which is good, but he said the alcohol was eating away at her body.
I can see her growing obstinate as she tsked under her breath and chose not to listen to a word he was saying. So when he told me that I needed to go to her doctor’s appointments with her to make sure she followed what they said, I looked at him and said, “Really? Do you have a magic potion for getting her to do what you say? Because I don’t.”
I envision for the near term, doctors visits galore, tests and more tests, and the rest, and at the end of the day, no change from the status quo – she started her death march a long time ago, it would take a miracle to turn the tides now.
He told me when we were leaving “Then be a good example for her.” I laughed. That is all I have been trying to do.