Not looking for medical advice. Mom is on her way to see the doctor as I type this,but just curious to see if Dopers can postulate what might be causing my elderly mom’s belly to emit sounds that are exactly like a cat crying. In fact, she actually asked me the other day to count my cats to see if one had escaped to her part of the house,because the noise was so loud. Then yesterday, as I was talking to her, I heard it myself, and went looking for a cat. Mom laughed and pointed to her gut, saying she’d figured out it was coming from her. She’s not feeling any discomfort, she says.
However, the reason she is going to the doctor anyhow is because she has suddenly (within the last few weeks) gained a significant amount of weight,and her face is puffy. Her legs have swollen, and she casually mentioned she’s found droplets of clear fluid on her legs…I noticed that her support stockings were stained from something, I’m assuming whatever is oozing from her legs. She figured she’s just cut back on portion sizes of what she’s eating. I said, off to the doctor! Fortunately she didn’t argue. She hates bothering the doctor.
She has been doing much less lately, because of the snow and ice she hasn’t had her daily walk to the mailbox, and she’s skipped church for two weeks because her leg was weak.She can no longer take even a few steps without the walker. She does faithfully do her physical therapy exercises each day, takes her water pills for mild blood pressure issues, and just recently got to stop the Tamoxifen (five years post-breast cancer,yeah!) She’s 86.
So, any theories on the cat noises? I’ll report back what the doctor says,and we’ll see who gets the right diagnosis!
Well, it’s not gas…they sent her to the ER, and then they admitted her, and beyond that I know nothing…darn those rules on no cellphone use in hospitals. Stay calm…
I’m not going to hazard a guess because everything I come up with sounds scary and could possibly be unnecessarily alarming. Good luck to your mom and I hope everything works out well.
Kinda makes you want to say “Really? Was breast cancer not enough?!?!? Come on now.”
I hope your mom is feeling better.
If she’s up to it, when you get to see her, tell her you’re going to call her Cronus now, after the greek god who ate his kids (the kids, hopefully like the cat in your mom’s belly, escaped with no real harm done).
More chance of it being an ant…suddenly the house is overrun with them. She had an irregular heartbeat and irregular breathing (“I’m only gasping for air because people have been rushing me this morning”) and she’s gained 25 pounds since her last doctor’s appointment…which was almost exactly 30 days ago! (Insert shocked smiley face here). They’ve got her on Nitroglycerine, Heparin and Lasix (?) and did a chest x-ray (All clear). We’ll see what the doctor comes up with today. It was a long day for my brother, who also managed to lock my car with both sets of keys in it, with the engine running, in the ER driveway.
The doctor did think the sounds were just a result of the fluid buildup…they kept mom giggling all evening, especially since she and I could hear them, but my brother could not.
Atrial arrythmia and congestive heart failure…both easily treatable, they say…but also kidney issues that don’t sound good…stage four something. I wish I didn’t have to be hearing this all second-hand, being her housemate and primary caregiver, but work got in the way and my brother had the time to sit around all day waiting. She still claims she’s not having trouble breathing, but my brother disagrees. They’ve gotten 3 liters of fluid out of her so far. A few more days in the hospital, and the physical therapist needs to determine if she has to go to rehab (again…she was just there LAST February for a few weeks).Fortunately the rehab center is literally a half-block from my house.
3 liters of fluid would weigh about 6 pounds, so at least they’re making some progress.
Can you ask the nurses what’s up? They might be better reporters than your brother.
