Andrew Parks Life Blog Experiences & Interests

I grew up in Smyrna Ga. I have had every intention to try to capture my memories of my childhood and teenage years somewhere, I guess my blog would be the best place for that.

I have been wanting to drive around Smyrna and take pictures of the few places that are still left that hold memories for me, more on that in a later post.

In the meantime I have decided to try a brainstorming exercise to try to think of every person, place and or thing about Smyrna and my experiences there.

Here goes the random list as they enter my mind, I will add more as I think of them.

Family,Sandies, Dantes Pizza,  Smyrna Elementary,  Aunt Fannies Cabin, Brinkley Park, Dunn St., Campbell High School, 1970 Chevelle Malibu, summertime, friends, GB’s Place, Hoot Gibsons BarBQ, Storyland, the covered bridge, bennet woods, old fire truck, the 4th of July, how to make a buck, belmont hills shopping center, Howards, Cobb Center, Griffin Middle School, Sisters, sparkles skating rink, Campbells Restaurant, The American Legion, Tenneco, Lee St., Jonquil Plaza, Smyrna Cable, The Sunnyside Inn, Nanny, Holly Tree, Colquitts, Ponderosa, Pizza Inn, Shakeys Pizza, First Baptist Church, Calvary Baptist Church, Church St., Ridge Rd., Pecans, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Silver Corvair, magic tricks, baseball, Johnny Rebs, A&P, Captain D’s, JC Penny’s, Woolworths, Dunaway Drugs, Dairy Queen, cutting grass, Whitfield St., Cousins, The Music Mart, Gibson’s Department Store, Richway’s, Jonquil sporting goods,Garage, Floor Heaters, Big Apple, Love, sno-cones, the concession stand, pool,green grass, blue sky, Jonquil pool, the teen canteen on Church St., Jane Lyle Rd., the woods, tennis, go cart, old Smyrna Library,

I am sure I have a bunch more in my brain but it is not 11:40 and I have to wake up at 4:30 AM

To be continued

P.S. If anyone from Smyrna reads this please post your memories here.

Thanks

Posted under Family, Genealogy, General interests, Music, My Life, Spiritual, childhood memories, favorite restaurants, home, homelife, relationships

One of my best Halloween childhood (12 13 14 ish) memories was going down to Atlanta costume off of Monroe drive. My best friend stu’s Mom drove us down there in her Volkswagen beetle and let us browse the store for who knows how long. This was in the mid-seventies and at the time we where into the band Kiss which led to us messing around with theatrical makeup.

We ended up leaving with clown white makeup, a bunch of different colors of face makeup that looked like little cylinders wrapped in gold foil, some spirit gum and fake hair that we ended up eventually using to create some very lifelike beards for ourselves. We proceeded to visit the local Tenneco convenience store and played some pranks on the clerk, ahh Tenneco we lived at that place.

Wonder how many times I said to Mom “Mom we goin to Tenneco”

I really can’t remember what we ended up dressing as that year for Halloween , but a skeleton, almost getting ran over by a car, and having allot of fun comes to mind.

Atlanta Costume is still there, well sort of it always was owned or a distributor of norcostco’s products.

My Wife and I dropped by there a few years ago, it is still a great place, it is always good to go back and visit places that held your childhood memories.

In the spirit of Halloween here is a picture of what I would have looked like if I was a grown up in the seventies.

Posted under Family, Hobbies, My Life, relationships

This week has been a long one, and it’s not over yet.

The woman who brought me into this world has been sick for several months, struggling with weakness, roller coaster hypertension, and now the lengthy illness has started to erode her spirit.

There have been multiple trips to the emergency room, some by ambulance, or a family member taking her to the dreaded place of sick people.

Recently Dr’s have been practicing medicine on her to attempt to lower the high blood pressure.

So here are some of the meds that have been tried some of which she is still on, with continuing constant high spikes of hypertension throughout the day.

Norvasc

Bistolic

Cozaar 100mg

Coreg 12.5mg

clonidine 0.2mg

Tekturna

Now I am not knocking the Dr’s, she has been to several, and the thing that strikes me is the Dr’s don’t seem to talk to each other enough, you basically have to be really sick before they really start looking at the root cause and stop just throwing meds at you.

So one week ago she had a heart catheterization after her primary care physician noticed something abnormal on an EKG. This is the proceedure where they insert a tiny tube in an artery typlically in your leg, and I assume they use some type of dye to examine the blood flow. So in a nutshell they found nothing to note, they said for an 80+ year young woman there where no significant blockages to speak of.

So relief right? No the issue of roller coaster hypertension, and extreme weakness persists.

So now on to a specialist, a Dr. called a Nephrologist basically a hypertension and kidney specialist.

By this time Mom is somewhat desparate, and can only focus on how bad she feels.

So the Dr. notices the blood work she had from the week before when she had the heart cath, and says “you are anemic, have you noticed any blood in your poop”, No Mom replies, “Dark stools?” again NO.

I hope she even knows this?

Also he says her sodium is low, so it sounds like both of these, anemia, and low sodium could cause weakness.

The Dr. ask’s Mom if she would agree to a colonoscopy, she replies with No I had one of those a few years ago and they did find anything.

So the doc proceeds to perscribe some new addition meds, (how many different pills can one take in a day anyway?) and orders an extensive blood test.

So this is on Friday, the weekend passes, I am sure like a bad dream for Mom cause the weakness and blood pressure are still out of control.

Needless to say I get a call at work on Monday, and Mom says she is calling 911, so back for another stay in the hospital, she gets admitted for low sodium. I understand this condition can be very dangerous?

Anyway a few days have passed and they have also found blood in her stool, so she is prepping for a colonoscopy at the hospital as I write this.

So tonight I say a prayer for Mom and get ready for what may be a long weekend.

Life… it is what it is sometimes.

I can only hope if there is someone out there with these same symptoms maybe this post might save you some time? 

Get the doc to check your sodium, and take a stool sample to check for blood…

Update: 10/13/2008

Ok so they put Mom through a battery of tests, a colonoscopy, a CAT scan, and an MRA basically, covering her entire body. The good news is results came back negative, so they found nothing.
So I assume that this weakness is directly related to anemia, and low blood volume and low sodium aka Hyponatremia. So it comes down to reducing fluid intake and taking an iron supplement.
Now don’t get me wrong Hyponatremia is a very serious condition and can be treated.

If you read the explaination for Hyponatremia, you will understand the reason behind all the tests.

So there is a moral behind this story, eat right, everything in moderation, exercise, and especially when you get older and are a women take an iron supplement, but get the blood work from your Dr. and make sure that he is in the loop.

My research

Good information here on low sodium – the medical term is Hyponatremia

geriatric hypertension

geriatric nursing

Update: 10/19/2008

Ok so this is current list of meds that Mom is on, and the times she takes them during the day.

AM

Hydralazine ( 50 mg ) but I am weary of this med based on her current side effects ?

Lexapro perscribed to my Mom for depression, I guess in her case geriatric depression, (also not sure of mg) but it does not matter, I just read a statement on the front page of the Lexapro website, and there is s specific statement stating that geriatic patients with symptomatic hyponatremia should not be taking Lexapro. I am starting to wonder if the doctor even read the drug interactions and caution statements, in this case regarding geriatic patients with hyponatremia.
Now her Dr is a Nephrologist, I.E. a hypertension specialist. I am starting to think the Pharmaceutical reps are just giving the doctor the breifing on these drugs verbally, and they are handing them out. Now I am starting to get pissed, needless to say I will be calling my Mom’s Dr. in the morning.

Interesting article here on geriatric depression, we are not Jewish but it sounds like they may have some useful information on treatment.

Noon

Hydralazine ( 50 mg ) again weary of this med based on her current side effects .
I would like to see her switched to an ACE inhibitor like the this “post” explains, maybe specifically Vasotec for example, I take the drug Vasotec for hypertension and tolerate it well.

PM

Hydralazine ( 50 mg ) again weary of this med based on her current side effects .
I would like to see her switched to an ACE inhibitor like the this “post” explains, maybe specifically Vasotec for example, I take the drug Vasotec for hypertension and tolerate it well.

Verapamil (360 mg) for hypertension, this is a large dose for an old lady of 81, but it does seem to be keeping her blood pressure down, I also take this medication an d have been for several years now with limted side affects.

There is a high incidence of constipation associated with Verapamil’s use, but increasing your fiber intake to 25 to 35 grams of fiber per day will keep you in check.

I think it is a good drug.

Lastly she was perscribed tekturna (300 mg), in reading the website I just hope it is not tekturna HCT based on the fact that it has a diuretic added to it, and IMO “In my Opinion” would be a mistake for a Hyponatremic patient.

Mom is also taking xanax / alprazolam (.25 mg) twice a day, or as needed, I.E. if she does not need it twice a day she does not take it. Lately though her axiety has been very high, and this drug does a good job at treating axiety disorders.

So currently Mom is so weak she can’t hardly get around, just since she has gotten out of the hospital a week ago and has been taking these meds for one full week, and now she is weaker than ever. I will be calling the Dr. in the morning and requesting that she is taken off of the Lexapro ASAP due to the warnings about Hyponatremia in geriatric patients, which she is currently battling, this is critical mistake IMO “In My Opionion”

Also based on this Doctors comments it sounds like hydralazine may should be replaced soon with an ACE inhibitor, something like Vasotec ?

It really sucks to see my Mom in this state, if there are any doctors out there reading this feel free to comment, all I want is to see her stablized, and based on my research so far I think some of her current symptoms are based on the side effects of two of these medicines, specifically Lexapro and Hydralazine, and which may be agrivating the hyponatremia.

1. She has had roller coaster hypertension, I think the verapamil has done the most for her so far because as soon as she started taking it her BP stablized.

2. She does have anemia, and is taking iron for that, as bleeding has been ruled out because she had a coloscopy last week and the only thing they found was mild Diverticulosis / Diverticulitis

3.She also had a full body CAT scan / MRI I think to rule out any tumors / cancer which sometimes if a cause of Hyponatremia.

4. She is recovering from hyponatremia, on Thursday 10/16/2008 her sodium level was 129 which is about 7 points low of the low end of the scale outlined here. The Lexapro to me is a medical mistake considering her current conditon.

Argh…

Update: 10/26/2008

Mom quit taking the Lexapro with the ok from the Dr. after I raised concerns with him about the direct warning on the front page of thier website.

The mystery continues though, on 10/22/2008 Mom called 911 because if extreme weakness, and now she is back in the hospital. This is her third stay in the past two months. She was admited once again for
hyponatremia, low sodium level in the blood. Over the last week since her last hospital stay she had gotten progressivley weaker each day. One good develpement was that Mom’s blood pressure was now being controlled at levels ranging from 150 over 80, to 130 over 70, and sometimes a bit lower, but overall what would be considered controlled without huge spikes in blood pressure for long periods of time like she has been experiencing for so long.

The first day when she was admitted into the hospital her blood sodium level was 117 to 119 which is very low. At that time they placed here on lasix, what they call a loop diuretic. Now my first reaction was what are they trying to do kill her?, but after I read more about how a loop diuretic works it seems increase renal free water excretion, thus allowing the sodium level to raise?

On Friday 10/24/2008 I had a disucssion with the doctor about Mom’s hyponatremia, and I asked him, “based on the tests that have been performed up to this point do they have any clue what may be causing this low sodium issue“. The Dr. went on to tell me that based on the lack of findings up to this point, and Mom’s age of (81), that the condition appeared to be something called SIADH, sometimes common in geriatic women, basically a hormonal condition that makes you absorb too much water, and the result is hyponatremia. I then inquired what causes this SIADH (Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone), and he says that it can be caused by a number of reasons, maybe a small undetectable stroke that may not even be able to be found by normal means, which he said is most likely they case here.

In addition to lasix, fluid restriction limited to 800ccs a day, they have also added a drug called demeclocycline, a drug in the family of tetracycline antibiotics used also to treat hyponatremia due to SAIDH.

They also have started her on a pottasium, because you can loose pottasium during the lasix treatment, and that is whole other condition, lets not borrow trouble, because low pottasium is fraught with it’s own problems.

In a conversation he had with my sister, she voiced some concerns whether some of Mom’s recent hyponatremic condition could have been brought on by the mix of blood pressure medicine that she has just recently been changed to, with a special focus on hydralazine, as the drug has some contridictions that reference hyponatremia. And xanax / alprazolam, not a huge concern, but still worth consideration because certain mood altering drugs can be associated with hyponatremia because they mess with the receptors in the brain that control serotonin. His reply was yes, the drugs that she is currently taking to control her hypertension, and anxiety are under scrutiny and consideration as well, and one of them could be a partial cause.

So on this note of possible drug contridictions, they have titrated (lowered the dose to 25 mg), of hydralazine three times a day.

In reading all the causes for SIADH, my hopes are that it is just idiopathic, which means it just happens for sometimes reasons unknown.

Today is Sunday October 26th 2008, and Moms sodium level is up to 127 which is very good, she is still very weak, but at least she is up and walking with prompting from others.

I inquired with the doctor at what point is low sodium dangerous, and he said anything 115 or below they get very concerned.

I really would like to see her stay another few days just to ensure her sodium levels do not fall, and ensure the levels continue to increase. What we don’t want is to see another imminent trip back to hospital.

I just hope the mystery is narrowing.

If this goes on much longer, we will need a Dr. House

Update: 11/09/2008

Here is the timetable, Mom comes home from the hospital on 10/27/2008 with a sodium level of 129.

She is home all week and has a Dr’s appointment on 10/30 at 4PM to have a blood test to check her sodium level. Well my Mom and sister gety jacked around and have to wait forever at the Dr., needless to say the front office screws up and allows another patient ahead of Mom, and in the mean time the lab closes.

So she has to return the next Morning only to delay the blood test.

The weekend passes, Mom gets weaker, and Monday 11/3 Mom calls 911 again because she can’t take the weakness any longer. She is admitted with a sodium level of 123, the test on Friday 10/31 showed her blood sodium level at 129. After a week a treatment with demeclocycline and Furosemide (lasix), it seems the sodium level of 129 stayed level and has not risen? But now on 11/3 the level is at 123, so it dropped 6 points over the weekend. Mom constantly complains of going from sweating, to being chilled and freezing. I imagine the sweating part could be making her loose sodium. He blood pressure remains stable.

During her stay this go round the Dr’s remove her from the lasix, continue the demeclocycline treatment.

The Dr’s also order the following tests, a thyroid scan, endoscopy, and a gallblader sonogram .

The endoscopy test yeilds that Mom has a stomach ulcer close to where the esophagus meets the top of the stomach, and also they observe that eh lining of the stomach is irritated, I.E. Gastroenteritis.

During the procedure they took biopsy of cells in the stomach and the ulcer to check for any cancerous cells.

Immediate treatment will begin to treat the ulcer and the gastroenteritis and the ulcer.

They are using Sucralfate 1 (gm) tablet 4 times a day to treat the ulcer, and lactulose 10 2 table spoons once a day for constipation.

A few nights while in the hospital Mom is given salt tablets at night to try to raise her sodium level.

Later in the week I had a converation with the Dr. and he advised that it is balancing act trying to treat hypertension and Hyponatremia, basically he says sometimes depending on the geriatric patients hypertension severity caution should be used in trying to lower the blood pressure to what is deemed as totally normal levels. He says typically hypertension levels of 10 to 20 percent higher than the norm of 120/80 is sometimes the norm in older patients. So a BP of 140 / 90 to 150 / 100 may not always warrant treating it with too many meds.

On this vein of thinking they have removed the tekturna (300 mg), from her treatment.

The ulcer could be a root cause and contributing factor to the Hyponatremia

So Mom gets out of the hospital on 11/7 and we will see how things go.

Time will tell, the medical saga continues.

Update: 3/20/09

I found a great book that covers a multitude of medical subjects, it has helped me understand more about this condition. The book is called CURRENT Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2009 (LANGE CURRENT Series), I spent hours reading it at the book store but just could not bring myself to purchase it, I think it was close to $80.00 there. I am sure I could find used copies of it for a much better price, I checked it out over on Amazon, this is what I found.

CURRENT Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2009 (LANGE CURRENT Series)

Posted under Family, health, relationships