AS THE SANDLER FAMILY TURNS

I got a call on Wednesday from my friend Michael in Florida. He told me that Barry called him and said my mother, Shirley Silverman is in the hospital. When I called the hospital I learned she had been there a week. I spoke to her and her doctor and Case Manager and social worker. She had a perforated abdominal hernia. The doctor told me when she was admitted she was severely ill and they performed surgery immediately. "It could have gone either way." She is now recovering. We talked in the last couple of days and she has already been transferred to Spaulding Rehab North, right next to the Salem Hospital. The doctor told me "...she sat home for 16 days with an obstructed hernia and came in extremely ill....she sat home, drinking diet coke, hoping it would go away. " At that point I told him she has a diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenia, is non-compliant about taking meds and isolates.

On Thursday I became her Health Care Proxy and contact person at the Congregate Housing building where she lives.

On another note, my cousin Ken, packed up and left Billings, Montana to go to Deerfield Beach, Florida to be by his mother, my aunt Ruth who will be 91 come July.

Stay tuned........

UPDATE 11:50 AM

Shirley is not in rehab because her white blood count is up; she is on an anti-biotic I.V. and is scheduled for a cat-scan later today.........

4:30 PM
Tried calling my mother twice today, could not reach her.
Am waiting to hear from the doctor.

Special shout out to Molly M. who emailed me with her kind words and support.........thank you :)

6:00 PM

I was told by her nurse she had a catscan at 5:30 and then she would be eating dinner. I was not able to reach her. Dr. Kastrianakis never returned my call. Today I worried because of the elevated white blood count and the Catscan.........