Monday, September 19, 2005
It's Snickers Time Again!
By now the thrush had finally quieted down. It wasn't completely gone, but at least Bamps could put in his dentures. That meant one thing: SNICKERS! He had really missed his candy bars. All the high fat food he was eating was barely keeping his weight up and we were hoping the Snickers would add some weight. Not even Juanita's brownies, fudge and arroz con pollo were doing much to keep his weight up.
On days Juanita didn't come by with goodies, Bamps had to suffer with my cooking. Now, I'm a good cook...then...well, I could grill lots of stuff! We had lots of grilled chicken, turkey breasts, bananas and peaches.
While the thrush was waning, there were other things that were beginning to happen. Bamps' TB was more active and he was coughing more. His ribs always hurt. He had lesions scattered over his body, which were diagnosed as Kaposi's Sarcoma. He weighed the treatments available at the time, but declined them all when Dr. S said that overall, it wouldn't make much of difference in terms of lifespan.
Day and night he would break out in drenching sweats and run fevers for now reason. He joked about being in menopause.
And still no positive HIV test. Doctors A & S said that unless he wanted to, they'd skip testing and just treat symptoms as they occurred. There was another test that would be out in a few weeks that might be more sensitive. My grandfather agreed with them.
Outside the doctor's offices, Bamps said that no matter what the tests said, he knew he had AIDS. There were just too many symptoms, including a horribly low t-cell count.
On days Juanita didn't come by with goodies, Bamps had to suffer with my cooking. Now, I'm a good cook...then...well, I could grill lots of stuff! We had lots of grilled chicken, turkey breasts, bananas and peaches.
While the thrush was waning, there were other things that were beginning to happen. Bamps' TB was more active and he was coughing more. His ribs always hurt. He had lesions scattered over his body, which were diagnosed as Kaposi's Sarcoma. He weighed the treatments available at the time, but declined them all when Dr. S said that overall, it wouldn't make much of difference in terms of lifespan.
Day and night he would break out in drenching sweats and run fevers for now reason. He joked about being in menopause.
And still no positive HIV test. Doctors A & S said that unless he wanted to, they'd skip testing and just treat symptoms as they occurred. There was another test that would be out in a few weeks that might be more sensitive. My grandfather agreed with them.
Outside the doctor's offices, Bamps said that no matter what the tests said, he knew he had AIDS. There were just too many symptoms, including a horribly low t-cell count.
