Aspirin a Day Can Kill

what happens then farmerman? I convert to a fern.

Another aspirin story.

My mother had a pacemaker. At her annual checkup her cardiologist suggested she start taking a baby aspirin each day. Mom wasn't about to buy baby aspirin when she had a full bottle of Bayer in the cabinet. Without telling anyone she started taking one full-strength aspirin a day, thinking it wouldn't hurt her any. Two weeks later she called an ambulance (again, without saying anything to anyone) and went to the ER for rectal bleeding.

In this case, it seemed to be a blessing is disguise because they detected early stage, highly curable colon cancer that had started bleeding because of her aspirin intake. She was 83 at the time, living alone and otherwise very healthy. Surgery was scheduled to remove the cancer. During the pre-op workups they discovered early stage Hairy t-cell Leukemia, a chronic, slow-progressing leukemia that takes 10 or more years to become problematic. Mom was sputtering because she seemed to be getting more and more illnesses and she wasn't happy about becoming part of the 'medical system'. She debated about not having the surgery and letting nature take it's course, but consented when the surgeon convinced her she was likely to make a full recovery after a few weeks of rehab. The leukemia diagnosis gave her more pause because she didn't want to start bouncing from one specialist to another for this disease and that. She finally consented to the surgery because she was otherwise healthy, living independently, and still had an overall good quality of life. She wasn't fully convinced she was making the right choice.

She had the surgery, was told they believed they'd successfully removed all the cancer, and began her recovery. She developed some post-surgical complications and my scheduled visit to help her get settled into short-term rehab turned out to be a hospital visit instead. While I was there the Dr started talking about moving her to nursing home care instead of rehab. She was terrified. She felt that if she went into a nursing home, she would never be able to return to her house. The Dr thought she would need at least another two weeks in the hospital before she would be well enough to transfer to short-term or long-term care. I returned home with the promise of returning two weeks later to help get her settled into rehab (hopefully) or long-term care. She died the day I left. She developed a blood clot that traveled to her lungs, possibly because she was no longer taking aspirin while bedridden.

It's a convoluted aspirin story and although the aspirin might have been a factor in her death, she died quickly and without having to endure the loss of independence she valued most. She told me her lifelong dream was to see the new millenium. She spent New Years 2000 watching the world-wide television coverage. It was her first all-nighter in more than 50 years. It was the day she'd lived a lifetime to witness. She died later that summer with her dignity intact and few, if any, regrets.

Her health was severley compromised long before she took the aspirin. Sometimes in retrospect we wish the doctors had made some different calls (not being judgemental, just speaking in general Obviously I am not competent to comment on what happened to your mother).

J_B, that was a well written description of what happened with your mother. Must have been hard on you (not to mention her) to have her die the day you left, but I am glad you could have the millenium experience with her.

On aspirin, I may have posted this on the thread before, but I'll add that I once read a regular aspirin's (as opposed to baby aspirin's) effects re blood thinning last four or five days. If that is true, taking one a day for pain relief, for example, is possibly troublemaking. (No source right now, sorry.)

J_B, so glad to hear of your mother's GOOD death. My mother committed suicide.

Oh, JL.......

Didn't mean to be so melodramatic. But bad deaths, like those in Iraq, teach one to appreciate good deaths. They are something to celebrate--but not quite as much as a good life.

Yes, true.

Well said, JL. My thanks to you and to J_B for sharing your stories.

I wanted to post about fiddleheads as they can be problematic:

Sorry, jl.

Thanks Edgar and Osso. It happened exactly half a century ago. Thank goodness I was grown-up and no longer needed a mother. The sadness I feel for her life has "deepened" me to some extent...I guess. One of the saddest things I see is the commonly seen deaths from cancer of mothers of young children.

Interesting recipes on that site, mac11!
Wondering just what the food borne, presumeably soil borne, illness was that had the toxin. Several bacteria in soil can produce toxins..

Saw this and thought I should chip in. I take one 100mg aspirin tablet (Astrix) daily on doctor's orders. I stress, under doctor's orders, this isn't some sort of self-help on my part.

JLN, I was taken "aback" by the story of your mother. I really don't know what to say, except "sorry."

JLN, I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for you at the time, nor do I pretend to think it got easier for you as the years went by. You were right on in picking out the intent of my story. That sometimes things seem to happen for a reason and although it was a shock at the time, I very quickly came to realise that her passing in the manner she did was, in fact, a GOOD death for her.

My condolences to you and the rest of your family.

Thanks, but what still hurts is the death of my wife to cancer in 1989. I'm actually amused by the way I'm piling my horrors (which I have survived quite well) onto you kind people. We all have such stories; it is what makes us human I suppose. As I get older I lose more and more relatives and friends (even former students). It IS sad. But it's the way things are.
Right now I'm just concerned not to lose anybody to some kind of fern.

Horror piling is good for the soul, and who better than a group of people who care, but aren't so close as to make you feel burdensome? The internet is a wonderful place.

My ex-MIL prepared fiddleheads every spring. I detested them, but choked them down to be a good sport. I look at my ostrich ferns as they break ground every spring and grant them clemency for another year.

My good friend, who sparked this thread, is now in the hospital. I am informed she had gotten increasingly disoriented and weak for several days. She is almost certainly not going to be allowed to go home, assuming she survives at all. I wish you people could have gotten to know her. It has been an honor and a privelege to be her friend. Once she is moved out of here, I probably won't see her but a time or two again. Her life has been long and productive. There is not much to regret. Just thought you might want to know.

I'm sorry about your friend, Edgar. I will keep both of you in my thoughts.

Thanks for keeping us informed, Edgar..