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Hopeful and Marlene, thank you both so much for the response. I appreciate it more than you know.
They started the verapamil because in the hospital her heart rate was being erratic, especially moving from laying to standing and walking. The cardiologists said it's not afib thankfully but something called multifocal atrial tachycardia. My research and what the hospitalist explained is that it's an irregular rhythm most often seen in people with COPD but can also present from electrolyte imbalances, anemia, etc. She has no symptoms from it, no trouble breathing or coughing.
They replaced a lot of electrolytes in the hospital which did seem to make it better but then decided to add the verapamil. My mom is now very worried about taking it and making the swelling worse. We have to call the cardiologist for follow-up but I'm also worried they are going to want to drag her into the office before doing anything.
Today the worst happened, my mother fell while trying to get into the car to go the clinic. It was due to leg weakness and the swelling making it difficult, plus it decided to snow today of all days. She is okay, I was holding onto her but due to her slippery coat she kind of just slid out of my hold and onto the ground. I'm so glad she is okay though, it wasn't a hard fall. I'm worried about the future clinic visits though.
She hasn't been taking the exjade in awhile now. She is pretty hardheaded and stopped because it was also making her sick. Thankfully her ferritin had gone down quite a bit. I actually even found a great article that Promacta is a decent iron chelator. Her ferritin was down to about 1400 last time they checked.
I'm trying to get as much nutrition into her as I can but it's very hard. I did get some protein powder and lots of bananas, frozen fruits and other stuff to make smoothies. She has been tolerating Soylent drinks (the chocolate ones taste a lot better than Ensure) and a lot of broths and some soft foods and juices. I did also get some Pedialyte sport drink powder because it's the only one I found that has a full range of electrolytes instead of just sodium and sugar.
It seems she can only tolerate so much volume though, and is struggling with lack of appetite.
It just feels so unfair, because her blood numbers today were also great. Hgb of 9.9 and platelets of 82!!! But why is she feeling so terrible? I can only think it's because she just hasn't been getting the right support and has just been circling the drain a bit with not eating making the nausea worse, not getting enough movement making her weaker, etc besides all the awful side effects of the medications.
They tried to cut down a few medications in the hospital like the levofloxacin but her hematologist was ADAMANT that it be reintroduced. I had hoped they could reduce the pill burden for her somewhat but instead they added one!
Thanks for letting me ramble here, trying to get my thoughts together.
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