Tuesday, February 21, 2012

New med schedule

The nurse came yesterday and said the swelling in Dave's foot/leg could be related to a number of things.  It could be a side effect of the oral chemo, from not being out of bed much, from being in the chair too much (can't win either way apparently).. I read it could be from blood clots but the nurse kind of glosses over that when I mention it.  I imagine they don't worry too much about clots on hospice because there really isn't much they can do about them when you're dealing with someone who is terminal.  They're not even giving him the coumadin.  Overall she wasn't overly concerned about the swelling and said it's fairly normal to have it only on one side.

We did alter his medicine schedule since his pain has been pretty low and he hasn't had any seizures since Jan 26th.  He's now taking the Ativan(Lorazapam) once a day instead of twice and it's a very low dose, .25 ml.  The morphine he WAS taking at .25 ml ever 4 hours and we're stretching that out to every 6 hours.  That makes for an easier sleep schedule as well since they said it's ok to not move him for 4 hours at night but 2 hours during the day.  Because of the way meds need to be spread out and the additional maintenance meds he's taking and trying to schedule it so we can both sleep at night I was giving him meds 8 times a day and we've scaled that down to 6.  It doesn't seem like much of a difference when I say it that way but its much simpler now.  If at any time he's in more pain or has a seizure we can easily increase the meds back up.   I'm probably driving him crazy asking him repeatedly how he's feeling so I can keep tabs on it.  I suspect that the seizures were a one off kind of thing and were due to the pain, not that he's prone to seizures generally.  At least we're hoping that's the case. We still don't know when/if he starts his next at home chemo treatment but we better find out soon because we need to order it through the mail order pharmacy.  I figure they have until the end of the month to let us know what's going on with it before I pitch a fit. 

He's still doing well for the most part.  His right hand continues to gain dexterity.  He can actually touch his thumb to his pinky 9 times out of 10.  If he's moving his arm around it's better, if he's been sleeping then it swells slightly and he can't. 

Owen had a good birthday weekend.  He ended up spending the rest of the weekend (including the holiday) at Tim and Rose's.  When he got home last night he was really unhappy to learn that when you're away from home your chores don't do themselves!  He's getting older and and getting more privileges, with that comes more responsibility much to his chagrin. I'm such a slave driver. ;) 

Speaking of cleaning... The cleaning lady is here.  She really does an awesome job and we're happy to have her.  I barely have time to keep things moderately tidy much less doing the actual vacuuming/sweeping/mopping/bathroom/kitchen stuff she does.  Actually the living room is easy because no one is ever out there!  Suddenly our house doesn't feel as small as it used to when we primarily only use a couple of rooms. Well Owen uses the whole house but I only use a couple of rooms. 

This week we're hoping that David's new med schedule works out, that his leg swelling goes down and that I can catch up on some sleep.  I was kind of a zombie yesterday.  I really need to start napping when he does.

In a totally random aside.  I just saw a commercial for a show called Too Cute! on Animal Planet on Saturday.  A whole show of puppies and kitties being cute!  Dave is just gonna love that! (hahahhahahahaha)  I told him I'm going to watch it and say "Awwww" a lot. He said he figured as much. He must really love me to put up with all that nonsense.

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