ER

I spoke with Ma this past weekend and everything was fine. No complaints.

But last night Mavis called to check up on Ma.  She sounded terrible and complained that she was feeling pain and heavy discomfort in her abdominal area.  Yesterday she had gone to the tribal health clinic to seek help and the doctor there told her she should take Milk of Magnesia. (Editorial side comment: this is a prime example of the poor quality of rural health care there and the number one reason she is a Mayo Clinic patient).  If you have a serious illness with painful and acute symptoms, you should take Milk of Magnesia? 

So ignoring the buffoon tribal health clinic doctor, and after a couple of conference calls with me, Sylvia and Mave on one line and Jim and John patched in through another line listening in through my cell phone, we decided to get in touch with the oncologist on-call at the Mayo Clinic to see what to do. 

After hearing all of her symptoms from Mavis who made the call, the oncologist at Mayo recommended that Ma be brought to local emergency room. By this time it was about 11:30 at night and undertandably Ma didn't feel like going anywhere in the middle of the night. 

So this morning we all have our phones close as we wait to hear what's going on.  Jim is on his way to pick her up in Baraga and from there they are going to the ER either at Portage View Hospital in Hancock or back to Marquette General.