MedSpeak

I just had an interesting conversation with a nurse from the cardiology service. It was interesting in that I'm interested in medical concepts; not so interesting when you realize that this was my mother we were talking about.

It appears that my mother has multiple problems. The elevated heart rate which had her out of breath and which brought her into the hospital has been addressed and is stable. She still gets out of breath due to two conditions: she's anemic, and her lungs are damaged. The first can be addressed; the second, mostly. What's of more concern now, though, is that her kidney function has 'elevated numbers'. I don't know specifically what that means. One of her drugs has the side effect of elevating whatever these numbes are, though, so they're not sure if that might not be the reason. If it is, then they should go back down - though possibly not down to normal - when the drug is removed. If not, we're looking at dialysis, though, possibly, not long term -- more of a supplement to kidney function rather than a replacement.

Fun stuff.