Willing to try anything and a visit to the hospital

Over the last several days Dad has been in a lot of back pain and spasming. The pain medications and muscle relaxants aren't working for him so he got to the point that he was willing to try anything, including acupuncture.

Dad had his first visit with the acupuncturist on Thursday. He wasn't impressed. She did place some needles in his back and his ear and used a technique called cupping to draw out the toxins from his muscles that were causing the back pains. The cupping caused lots of bruising and left marks on his back. He was actually laughing afterwards, saying his back felt good, but he might as well have seen a witch doctor for what he was going through. Friday he wasn't miraculously healed, which I think he was really hoping for. Friday was a bad day- busy at work and in a lot of pain. Saturday was the second session for acupuncture. So willing to give it a second chance, he went. Fortunately for him he had a muscle spasm on the table. A whole lot of pain and several more needles later he was still barely able to move. That put an end to his trial of acupuncture.

Saturday night was bad and Sunday morning wasn't any better. Still in so much pain and barely able to move, Dad talked with Dr. Kazhdan and agreed to go to the hospital to get some pain control so that he could have a repeat MRI. Luckily, it happened to be the hospital I was working at so I was able to see him briefly. The ER doctor and the doctor managing his care in the hospital are very concerned for an area of swelling on his back. It could be from the cupping or could be bleeding under the surface deep in the muscle from an acupuncture needle. Because he is on blood thinners, if a blood vessel were nicked- it could still be bleeding, compressing the adjacent nerve and causing muscle spasms. They finally got his pain under control- this way he can get the MRI tonight. The MRI will tell us if there is bleeding or if it is compression to the nerves from his weakened back bones. His bones are very weak --at least from what they could see on the XRay.

Every cloud has to have a silver lining right? On the brighter side, Dad's renal function tests are much better and his WBC count in back up to the low side of normal. I talked with Dr. Kazhdan today and she is very excited about this. It could have been the antiviral medication that was causing the problem with his kidneys. The worrisome part of this situation is what will happen when he has his intensive treatment after his bypass. Time will tell.

I know everyone is praying and keeping my Dad in their daily thoughts, but please say a prayer for him tonight. He will stay overnight in the hospital until they can figure out what is the matter with his back. Pray for strong bones, a strong heart and a strong will to beat this terrible disease.