Before I get into the reason of the title, let's play some catching up information.
I have mentioned before that my mother has NMO: Neuromyelitis Optica. An ailment that effects the Optic Nerve in the eyes and/or the Spinal Cord in the back, causing one to go either blind or paralyzed. My mom has NMO only effecting her eyes which is making her go blind as a result of having an Over-acting immune System. But it has always been a slow process to where she can still see a little bit to navigate herself around her. Her medication for her eyes were to help drop her immune system down so that some of her vision can come back or stabilize. All tests always said too that her NMO has never affected her Spinal Cord in her back and she has never had any back pain problems in her life... until 5 months ago...
5 Months ago, she then started to feel discomfort in her back which only sounded like a pulled muscle or a sore back. To which we thought that her medications for her eyes that are reducing her immune system was causing this to take her a long time to heal. (as well as factoring that she's over 70 years old.) But since then, her back has not gotten any better and even if it did, they were brief moments. Since then, we have been running around all over the country for a doctor that can give us a straight answer to her back problem until we finally found one this month. After X-Rays and MRI scans, doctor show that her back problems are NOT caused by her NMO, but that she has 4 deteriorating fractures in her lower spine bones. One of them with which is fracturing the most which is causing her the numbing discomfort. The other fractures are not the issue and the fact that her medication for her eyes were involving Steroids, there was always the risk of bones becoming brittle. According to the doctor, since it has been over 4 - 5 months of this, it's risky to take any surgery for her back (Which involves pumping cement in her back to help lift the spine back into place.) but the risk would be that the cement can break and get into the Spinal Cord which is something we agree she shouldn't risk taking, especially at her age.
Right now, I'm trying to get her the recommended TSLO Brace for her to wear for her back but this morning now, she has woken up to tell me that she is completely blind now. All she can see is darkness. She claims she had an attack on her eyes again but did not notice it because of all the pain killing meds she has been taking for her back masked the attack.
This moment I have dreaded yet saw coming for a while which was why I registered her to the Blind Welfare Association 6 months ago. The moment I could feel relief in helping her with one problem, another arises... And now it would seem that when mom tries to treat one ailment with her meds, it seems to have an effect on the other ailment. Does she keep taking the Steroid-type meds to keep her eyes working and start to feel more deterioration in her back bones, or she keeps treating her back and lose her sight forever? Either way, it's already a lose-lose situation. We were always relieved that her NMO never affected her spine, but it would seem life has a bloody sense of humor by giving her crippling back pain of another kind anyway... And as for me, I do not know what to do for her anymore... My life is gonna be taken by her alot more now to where its gonna make me slower to finish my Art Commissions for everyone. My life in my home country is nothing but an utter mess right now, and it's all because my parents becoming less and less the people I use to look up to. I'm so tired and fed up...
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4 months, 1 week ago
14 Aug 2024 16:28 CEST
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