Monday, July 24, 2006

Which is better: Mayo or Miracle Whip?

Dad wakes Amy around 2 AM saying that the pain is too much and that he needs to go to the ER She takes him into Methodist Hospital and they admit him. He has an obstructed bowel. This is bad, of course, but several good things come out of it:

  • He's in Rochester, in the hospital connected to Mayo Clinic. So he'll be able to get the care they were hoping for directly.
  • He still gets to keep the Monday morning appointment and hear about the chemo treatments
    Mayo has a team of people that help with making decisions and working with him. The care and setup of the clinic are excellent. They get to really watch him; gauge real-time what the effects of their interventions are, and set up appropriate plans for pain, nausea, and diet management.
  • The nutritionist/dieticians sit down with them and answer questions. At one point they spend an hour working through all the struggles they’ve been having about what things are good for him to eat and what things aren’t. Knowing that it’s better to get calories than vitamins (vegetables – too much work for his body to break down those nutrients right now) takes a TON of the day-to-day stress they’ve been living with away. When they go home, they both know the kinds of foods that his body most needs right now.

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