Set back

My mother had a set back in her recovery. She was improving quite well and last Friday one of Manor Care's occupational therapists had scheduled a home visit to see how mom could manage at home. They do this when they plan to soon release a person from the rehab facility.

However Mom had leg pain in just her left leg slowly building last week and was not feeling good enough for a home visit Friday. Dawn, mom's orthopedic doctor, believes Mom has spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spine). Dawn thinks this is the reason behind Mom's recent leg pain. Not a whole lot can be done as surgery is not a good option now.

• Spinal stenosis: WebMD
• Spinal stenosis: US News Health
  

Manor Care's nurse practitioner prescribed more pain medicines for mom, and over the weekend the meds may have built up as by Sunday night and especially on Monday afternoon Mom was extremely sleepy and loopy from the meds. She could hardly stay awake much less stand on her own. Monday afternoon I got the nurse practitioner to cut back on and discontinue some of the pain and muscle relaxant meds.

This seems to have done the trick as mom has come out of her fog, can stay awake, and is more alert. She still has some leg pain, but it is not as constant and doesn't seem as quite as intense as initially. Also she and my brother figured out that when the pain builds, sometimes using a hand to apply pressure against the muscle above the knee where it hurts makes the pain go away after a few minutes.

Now mom has to return to the level of strength she had before this recent over medication.