Mom and Dad's Visit

Well this wasn't really a visit per se.  She was actually here for some medical intervention. They came for 10 days and ended up staying for a month which was just fine with us.  My mom had some health issues that she had been dealing with since October 15 and it was time for her to get some answers on what was going on with her.  She went to National Jewish Hospital for some nodules in her lungs.  The doctors in Odessa had suggested that she get a lung biopsy and she decided that she was going to go to some place that did hundreds of them every month instead of one a month.  That's how she ended up here in Denver at NJH. 

If you've never been to a place like NJH it is hard to describe.  They had mom scheduled for 7 days worth of tests.  And I mean tests from 7:30 in the morning until 4:30-5:00 every afternoon.  She saw almost every specialist known to mankind over the 6 days that she was scheduled to be in Denver.  She saw and allergist, gastroenterologist, cardiologist, pulmonologist, infectious diseases specialist, oncologist, an interventional pulmonologist and respiratory specialist and and ENT. and had at least a million tests run.

Dad and I just sat around and waited for her to do her tests and went in with her to all of her appointments with the doctors. 

The first weekend they were here we stayed home and Mom rested. In fact all of us rested.  Dad and I were pretty tired from sitting around doing nothing and Mark had come in from North Dakota and had had a very stressful week.  We went to go see Finding Dory on Sunday but that was the extent of our weekend. 

While they were doing tests on the lungs they also found a suspicious nodule on her thyroid and they decided to do a biopsy on it so that kept them here for another couple of weeks.

In between the next two weeks of testing we managed to get some fun day trips in. The second weekend we went to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Mom and Dad had been through the Park in 1960 and they had always wanted to go back to see it.  It was a beautiful day and we totally enjoyed taking them to see it again.

Sack lunch in the mountains

Me and my posse

 

We also managed to explore a couple of new breweries that have opened up in the area too. 

We took a hike in Roxborough

We also had some down time too :)

The last weekend that they were here we went to Breckenridge.  Surprisingly Mom and Dad had never been there!  The best part of the trip was when my 81-year-old mother decided that she wanted to do the bobsled run!  She had so much fun doing it and she talked about it all day long.  We also took them home via Hoosier Pass.  It was a great way to spend the day awaiting test results. 

 

So the upshot of the whole thing is that my mom has some swallowing issues that caused the lung nodules but she can correct with exercises.  And the thyroid biopsy came back negative so she is cancer free!  Best news ever!