Friday, July 02, 2010

Psychosomatic?

Mom has been kinda sick for sometimes. It started after two of my uncles died last month. First, it was her blood pressure, then some dizziness even though her blood pressure was almost normal. Last week she complained about joint pain, that she couldnt perform certain movements. Each time I offered to take her to the hospital she flatly refused.


The other day we were told that one of our neighbor had dengue, and they did fogging in the area. Now, one of my dad's studies was dengue fever, and he told me a lot about it. When mom started to have red spot all over, I was worried she had another bout of dengue. Why? Because there are 4 kinds of dengue, with different degrees of severity. If you had one, you are only immune for that kind but it could also mean if you contracted with the other kind (even though it's the least harm kind) you will experienced it more severely than it normally would.

Finally, two days ago she agreed to see a doctor near our place because she developed some sort of un-itchy rash/swelling all over her body. Well, actually she agreed to do blood test, but to do that she had to see a doctor first. Her blood test results are normal, with a little bit of elevated hemoglobin. He said it's not dengue, nor chikungunya. Then mom called her sis who is an ENT doctor, who thinks mom has some allergic reaction.

Yesterday my aunt came over and I asked her if it is possible that mom has lyme disease. I know it's a long shot, but the most of symptoms are there. She said it's not common to have that in Indonesia, plus mom hasnt been tending her plants lately anyway. I didnt have time to ask more, as I had to do another hospital run (for someone who refuse to be a doctor, I sure spend a lot of my time at hospitals, but that's another story).

Last night mom almost lost all the swelling due to my aunt's meds. But this morning after she tried to located a door handle in her storage and got tired again, the rash returns.

I've been thinking, I know she was tired and stress out after my uncles passing away. I hate pulling the psychosomatic card, but it's weird that mom has been experiencing these symptoms while her test results are normal. It is two years ago this month that dad had his last birthday and passed away, I could only think that subconsciously it made mom sick.

Anyway, I am going to drag her to this doc I know this coming Tuesday.

2 comments:

colson said...

The situation in which one obviously ails and there is no clear cut diagnosis ( and no remedy as a consequence) is very stressful. I do hope both you and your mother will be reassured after next Tuesday.

triesti said...

Thanks, I hope so; but she just said that we'll see about going to see the doc. Sigh.