This week my brother went for a full cat scan and also a bone marrow test. I am not crazy about his hematologist, he seems like a caring person, but also not focused and maybe a person who should have retired already. He was recommended by my brother's nursing home doctor, who I hardly know, and who hardly knows my brother.
There is something very wrong with my brother's blood and his spleen is enlarged. There appears to be possibly something wrong with his lymph glands too. The results from the bone marrow test don't come back until Wednesday supposedly, but I don't believe it. Things are slowed down because of the holiday, but the person who did the test said the doctor would get the results today. Of course, this doctor doesn't work on Fridays. Monday is a holiday and the only day he is working is on Thursday and they are going to have to fit him in, if they can.
I am really concerned about how to communicate whatever illness my brother has to my brother. I'm not sure what his cognitive abilities are in regards to the possibility of having a serious condition that can cause mortality. I am also concerned because he is living in a nursing home and I'm mainly not going to be there if he needs me.
I have already contacted a palliative care service because I am getting a sense that these doctors are going to want to do full intervention no matter what. My main interest is keeping my brother has comfortable as possible, and I am concerned that I am not going to intervene enough. My brother already has advancing congestive heart failure and can hardly walk, he is on his way to a wheelchair.
My husband has wisely counseled me to contact professionals who have experience so the burden of making these decisions, although mine, can be shared with others.
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