Today was productive but mostly I'm writing to say that tomorrow David has an appointment at the Dr's office at 10:40. We'll know for sure if the dr thinks he's strong enough to get the Avastin and if Dr gives the go ahead he's getting it right then, lickety split!
We expect tomorrow to be a long slow day but that's ok as long as something productive is happening. I made sure that transport knows we need 2 people, I'll call in the morning to confirm. I lined up people to be here to help me move Dave from the bed to the chair and back again. I could probably do it myself but it would be safer for 2 people so we'll go that route. We also go the Temodar in the mail so I guess we start that tomorrow as well. OH BOY! I expect that Dave will be a tired puppy on his birthday. Luckily he spends a lot of time in bed... the perfect place to sleep!
Keep him in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, that everything goes smoothly and he makes it there and back without incident. It will be his first time outside in over a month! The poor guy must have a raging case of cabin fever!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Snow?
So tonight the forecast is for snow... with no significant accumulation, much to Owen's dismay. Although around here if we get an inch that will close schools. OH NOES! SNOWS! (it rhymed, I had to put the S)
Today Rose and I went to a couple of cemeteries and talked to a lady who kind of explained how things work. I say kind of because it's SO complicated. Ridiculously complicated. There's no reason it should be like this. I can't imagine having to go through it when you're actively grieving. I think I found the place I want to deal with and so now David and I just have to make a few decisions. We're motivated to have it all out of the way. Glad to have something checked off the list.
Tomorrow we're having our satellite upgraded (for free, yay) to HD. That means that a guy has to come upgrade the dish on our house tomorrow morning in the really crappy weather. I suppose that comes with the territory of working outdoors in Oregon. I'm wondering if he'll cancel if it snows at all. He's supposed to be here between 8 and noon and it will take him 1-3 hours depending on how difficult it ends up being. So... basically the window is from 8 am until 3 pm. Not to mention on wednesdays we usually have a nurse that comes out and a bath aid... maybe I shouldn't have scheduled the install on a wednesday? Let's just say I didn't really have my wits about me, go figure. I'm sure one way or another it will all work out.
In other news Dave was up in the chair today for 5 and a half hours. He had to lay back after a while and his feet are fairly swollen but we kind of expected that. We're going to try to make a dr's appointment for him in the next few days but to give him a couple of days to recover. I got him a new TV tray type thing so he can eat in his chair without having to necessarily be at the table. That might also enable him to use it to prop a book up or the laptop or something although he's showing pretty much zero interest in the computer. That's how you know when he's really sick, no computer urges. There's just only so much TV you can watch (I say as we get our satellite upgraded so he can watch prettier tv) so he really needs something else to keep him entertained. I'm pretty entertaining but I'm only one person! ;)
David's birthday is Saturday. The big 39! We're glad that he's here to celebrate with us.
Today Rose and I went to a couple of cemeteries and talked to a lady who kind of explained how things work. I say kind of because it's SO complicated. Ridiculously complicated. There's no reason it should be like this. I can't imagine having to go through it when you're actively grieving. I think I found the place I want to deal with and so now David and I just have to make a few decisions. We're motivated to have it all out of the way. Glad to have something checked off the list.
Tomorrow we're having our satellite upgraded (for free, yay) to HD. That means that a guy has to come upgrade the dish on our house tomorrow morning in the really crappy weather. I suppose that comes with the territory of working outdoors in Oregon. I'm wondering if he'll cancel if it snows at all. He's supposed to be here between 8 and noon and it will take him 1-3 hours depending on how difficult it ends up being. So... basically the window is from 8 am until 3 pm. Not to mention on wednesdays we usually have a nurse that comes out and a bath aid... maybe I shouldn't have scheduled the install on a wednesday? Let's just say I didn't really have my wits about me, go figure. I'm sure one way or another it will all work out.
In other news Dave was up in the chair today for 5 and a half hours. He had to lay back after a while and his feet are fairly swollen but we kind of expected that. We're going to try to make a dr's appointment for him in the next few days but to give him a couple of days to recover. I got him a new TV tray type thing so he can eat in his chair without having to necessarily be at the table. That might also enable him to use it to prop a book up or the laptop or something although he's showing pretty much zero interest in the computer. That's how you know when he's really sick, no computer urges. There's just only so much TV you can watch (I say as we get our satellite upgraded so he can watch prettier tv) so he really needs something else to keep him entertained. I'm pretty entertaining but I'm only one person! ;)
David's birthday is Saturday. The big 39! We're glad that he's here to celebrate with us.
Plan of Action
David had a pretty sleepy day. He took a couple of naps and every time he wakes up he apologizes for passing out. HA! It's good, I feel like he does better when he gets good rest. He went to bed at 10:30 tonight, hopefully tomorrow he'll have a longer awake day. It seems to go every other day. We heard from the doctor today. He wants to see David as soon as he can be in the wheel chair comfortably for around 4 hours. He anticipates that he will be able to do the Avastin (IV chemo) while he's there which takes about 90 minutes plus a dr's visit and transport time. Dr Hauck's PA mentioned that we may be able to schedule for Dr Hauck to see him at the same time while he's getting the chemo. Two (actually three) birds with one stone as it were. The more we can get done with one excursion the better!
Our nurse offered us a different possibility for why David had those seizures the day he came home. We have been assuming it was because of the rough transfer (we haven't abandoned that possibility entirely) but she pointed out that he had gotten the Avastin a week earlier and sometimes with chemo the reactions the body has can linger so it could have been a combo of the chemo and the move that pushed him over the edge. Seizure is one of the rarer but severe side effects of that drug. It's always a possibility but since he's on the Ativan now hopefully that's under control.
Dr also mentioned that Dave should go ahead and take the Temodar (pill form chemo) at the beginning of the month for 5 days (like last month) and to start taking the Coumadin again for the blood clots. Finally! Dave's left foot continues to swell a bit when he's up in the chair but the swelling doesn't seem to stick around for long which is a good sign. We can handle that!
Tomorrow Rose and I are going to go look at a cemetery that I want some information about. (Bless her for going with me for moral support) There was a place across town I drove by the other day and even though I thought I liked it from when David and I had driven by in the past I REALLY didn't like the idea of visiting there for a purpose some day. It was just kind of a dreary place. I'm not sure if it's the idea of visiting any cemetery or THAT cemetery but I think a final resting place should be at least pleasant. It wasn't my cup of tea so the search continues. I really really don't want to spend a lot of time dealing with this pre-planning stuff but one of the benefits of having David here is that he's willing and able to share his wishes with me. Actually he's been pretty fantastic about it and we constantly make jokes about the otherwise difficult decisions. For instance... what was the hymn his grandpa used to sing to his grandma when they bickered? He doesn't remember but I'm sure SOMEONE in the family must. He thought it was a primary hymn and while not necessarily appropriate he thought it would be funny to have it sung at his funeral. Enough about that. I realize it's probably hard for people to read about this because it makes it all the more real, and part of me feels like I'm going through the motions even though it doesn't seem all that real to me either. I take some comfort in knowing that once these plans are made there is no rush on them and they don't expire so we can spend our time in better ways.
So, new meds, an actual time frame to shoot for in the wheel chair, things to organize...
It will be nice to get him in the chair for longer on a regular basis. I'm hoping to get him to help me make a big batch of mole one of these days! Our last batch is finally gone and it's time to refill the freezer! It's only a 5 or 6 hour process... ;)
Our nurse offered us a different possibility for why David had those seizures the day he came home. We have been assuming it was because of the rough transfer (we haven't abandoned that possibility entirely) but she pointed out that he had gotten the Avastin a week earlier and sometimes with chemo the reactions the body has can linger so it could have been a combo of the chemo and the move that pushed him over the edge. Seizure is one of the rarer but severe side effects of that drug. It's always a possibility but since he's on the Ativan now hopefully that's under control.
Dr also mentioned that Dave should go ahead and take the Temodar (pill form chemo) at the beginning of the month for 5 days (like last month) and to start taking the Coumadin again for the blood clots. Finally! Dave's left foot continues to swell a bit when he's up in the chair but the swelling doesn't seem to stick around for long which is a good sign. We can handle that!
Tomorrow Rose and I are going to go look at a cemetery that I want some information about. (Bless her for going with me for moral support) There was a place across town I drove by the other day and even though I thought I liked it from when David and I had driven by in the past I REALLY didn't like the idea of visiting there for a purpose some day. It was just kind of a dreary place. I'm not sure if it's the idea of visiting any cemetery or THAT cemetery but I think a final resting place should be at least pleasant. It wasn't my cup of tea so the search continues. I really really don't want to spend a lot of time dealing with this pre-planning stuff but one of the benefits of having David here is that he's willing and able to share his wishes with me. Actually he's been pretty fantastic about it and we constantly make jokes about the otherwise difficult decisions. For instance... what was the hymn his grandpa used to sing to his grandma when they bickered? He doesn't remember but I'm sure SOMEONE in the family must. He thought it was a primary hymn and while not necessarily appropriate he thought it would be funny to have it sung at his funeral. Enough about that. I realize it's probably hard for people to read about this because it makes it all the more real, and part of me feels like I'm going through the motions even though it doesn't seem all that real to me either. I take some comfort in knowing that once these plans are made there is no rush on them and they don't expire so we can spend our time in better ways.
So, new meds, an actual time frame to shoot for in the wheel chair, things to organize...
It will be nice to get him in the chair for longer on a regular basis. I'm hoping to get him to help me make a big batch of mole one of these days! Our last batch is finally gone and it's time to refill the freezer! It's only a 5 or 6 hour process... ;)
Sunday, February 26, 2012
One Month of Home
As of today David has been home for a month. He got up in the chair again for a couple of hours and didn't have to recline at all. Big change from the man that he was when he came home.
It doesn't feel like it's been a month, it's gone by so quickly. We're guardedly optimistic. Not a lot of thoughts today. My lower back is hurting and it's not all that comfortable to sit here.
OH! I did want to mention that we got a t-shirt in the mail from our friends in Arizona. There was an American Cancer Society event today in Phoenix called Climb to Conquer Cancer. The t-shirt is from their team, this is the back:
I knew they were sending a shirt but I didn't know it had his name on it. We had a good cry over it. We can't express how much the love and support means to us. Thank you!
It doesn't feel like it's been a month, it's gone by so quickly. We're guardedly optimistic. Not a lot of thoughts today. My lower back is hurting and it's not all that comfortable to sit here.
OH! I did want to mention that we got a t-shirt in the mail from our friends in Arizona. There was an American Cancer Society event today in Phoenix called Climb to Conquer Cancer. The t-shirt is from their team, this is the back:
I knew they were sending a shirt but I didn't know it had his name on it. We had a good cry over it. We can't express how much the love and support means to us. Thank you!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Therapy Cat is theraputic.
Things are going fairly well for David. He's doing ok on his new medicine dosage schedule, no pain and he's a little more alert. Yesterday he stayed awake all day until after dinner when he took a little nap and today he took a short nap then was up in the wheel chair for 2 hours. We had to lay him back a bit but we checked his blood pressure a couple of times and it was good. Dave bought an electric cuff when he was having irregular heart rate problems a few years ago. (nothing serious) 103/69 at first then 104/76 after a while, in the range of normal for him as it's been fairly low and he wasn't feeling too bad (that he mentioned) so we're just doing what he can tolerate. Owen and I are getting pretty good at moving him around. I've found that it's easier to let Owen do the up/down controls on the lift and I do more of the maneuvering. Owen likes that better anyway since we got the electric lift instead of the hydraulic one you have to pump up.
The nurse is checking with the oncologist to find out what kind of time frame we're looking at for him being up before the Dr is comfortable letting him come in to the office.
Yesterday we had a rough day. Not medically, just emotionally. Everything that could be frustrating was frustrating. The massage nurse wasn't here on time, the school nurse called home to say Owen was sick and needed to be picked up... she said he had a slight fever of 98.9. In my universe that isn't a fever! As it was I think he was just dehydrated. He said his stomach hurt and when he stood up he got dizzy and a little pasty looking (more than usual) so I brought him home but not for 45 minutes because the nurse was late and I couldn't leave until she got here. Ordinarily I could have driven the mile to pick up Owen and left Dave alone but I had to be here to let the nurse in since Dave can't really let her in and I didn't feel good leaving a note on the door saying that I wasn't home and to come on in! So long story short (too late) the lunch place I went to wasn't open, we ended up not eating until 2:00 because the bath nurse got here right after that and Owen apparently wasn't sick he was just dehydrated and after drinking water and eating lunch he felt fine and today he was back to normal. Oh and I got super annoyed about lunch and ended up ordering pizza. Way easier. I got lunch cleaned up then Owen and I had eye dr appointments. I'm glad he was feeling better because I didn't want to have to reschedule. His eyes haven't really changed but he got a new pair of glasses anyway so that he has a backup and they're a little more grown up looking. I just ordered contacts because my eyes haven't changed enough to need new glasses. Not that I've been wearing my contacts lately... The Dr commented that he's impressed my eyes haven't changed more because stress tends to really ruin your focus. He noticed a little of that but not what he expected. OH! And my new atomic clock is somehow off by a half hour! How does that even happen?! The instructions say to move it to a wall that faces colorado. lol... oy. It was not that any one thing was all that frustrating but all of them together made for an un-awesome day.
There are aspects of being a full time caregiver that are starting to wear on me a bit. It's not really the taking care of him that's wearing on me, it's more the fact that it leaves me very little time/energy to do other things that need to be done. Things people can't really help me with like taking a shower and actually drying my hair instead of putting it straight into a pony tail. It seems like such a minor thing but it takes energy that I would rather expend doing other things or by the time I get around to it I'm too tired to flat iron my hair for 10 minutes. My concentration is pretty low and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much. Emotionally I'm doing ok for the most part, really. I'm just tired. I'm not sleeping great at night and during the day I should be napping but I don't get much of a chance to. I have a hard time sleeping if it's quiet because then my brain is on overdrive so I sleep with the TV on but I know that's not as restful for David.
On the bright side, Olive the black cat of doom as Owen dubbed her when we got her, has been super attentive lately. Especially yesterday. She is definitely David's cat. She has discovered that she can lay next to him on his bed and cuddle up to him. Over the last couple of days she's barely left his side. It kind of makes me nervous since she's the cat that slept on his pillow the night he got more sick but I think this time she's just being a therapy cat more than anything. I hope. It gives him a chance to pet her and feel/hear her constant purring and comfort. He seems to rest well when she's around so she's welcome to hang out any time unlike the other obnoxious cats. I'm glad she's being social.
The nurse is checking with the oncologist to find out what kind of time frame we're looking at for him being up before the Dr is comfortable letting him come in to the office.
Yesterday we had a rough day. Not medically, just emotionally. Everything that could be frustrating was frustrating. The massage nurse wasn't here on time, the school nurse called home to say Owen was sick and needed to be picked up... she said he had a slight fever of 98.9. In my universe that isn't a fever! As it was I think he was just dehydrated. He said his stomach hurt and when he stood up he got dizzy and a little pasty looking (more than usual) so I brought him home but not for 45 minutes because the nurse was late and I couldn't leave until she got here. Ordinarily I could have driven the mile to pick up Owen and left Dave alone but I had to be here to let the nurse in since Dave can't really let her in and I didn't feel good leaving a note on the door saying that I wasn't home and to come on in! So long story short (too late) the lunch place I went to wasn't open, we ended up not eating until 2:00 because the bath nurse got here right after that and Owen apparently wasn't sick he was just dehydrated and after drinking water and eating lunch he felt fine and today he was back to normal. Oh and I got super annoyed about lunch and ended up ordering pizza. Way easier. I got lunch cleaned up then Owen and I had eye dr appointments. I'm glad he was feeling better because I didn't want to have to reschedule. His eyes haven't really changed but he got a new pair of glasses anyway so that he has a backup and they're a little more grown up looking. I just ordered contacts because my eyes haven't changed enough to need new glasses. Not that I've been wearing my contacts lately... The Dr commented that he's impressed my eyes haven't changed more because stress tends to really ruin your focus. He noticed a little of that but not what he expected. OH! And my new atomic clock is somehow off by a half hour! How does that even happen?! The instructions say to move it to a wall that faces colorado. lol... oy. It was not that any one thing was all that frustrating but all of them together made for an un-awesome day.
There are aspects of being a full time caregiver that are starting to wear on me a bit. It's not really the taking care of him that's wearing on me, it's more the fact that it leaves me very little time/energy to do other things that need to be done. Things people can't really help me with like taking a shower and actually drying my hair instead of putting it straight into a pony tail. It seems like such a minor thing but it takes energy that I would rather expend doing other things or by the time I get around to it I'm too tired to flat iron my hair for 10 minutes. My concentration is pretty low and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much. Emotionally I'm doing ok for the most part, really. I'm just tired. I'm not sleeping great at night and during the day I should be napping but I don't get much of a chance to. I have a hard time sleeping if it's quiet because then my brain is on overdrive so I sleep with the TV on but I know that's not as restful for David.
On the bright side, Olive the black cat of doom as Owen dubbed her when we got her, has been super attentive lately. Especially yesterday. She is definitely David's cat. She has discovered that she can lay next to him on his bed and cuddle up to him. Over the last couple of days she's barely left his side. It kind of makes me nervous since she's the cat that slept on his pillow the night he got more sick but I think this time she's just being a therapy cat more than anything. I hope. It gives him a chance to pet her and feel/hear her constant purring and comfort. He seems to rest well when she's around so she's welcome to hang out any time unlike the other obnoxious cats. I'm glad she's being social.
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.
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.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Birthday Aftermath
Yesterday and today were the fantastic birthday extravaganza. Last night my mom and my brother's family came down to visit from Salem. It was a great family dinner. I made Shepherd's pie at Owen's request(first time I've cooked since Dave's been home) and Dave got up in the wheel chair, ate dinner at the table with the family and stayed up for about an hour and a half before asking to lay back down. He did really great! The transfers went really easy, Owen was my primary helper and he did a good job, but by the time David got back into bed he was very tired and looking a little pale. He slept for a few hours, got up for an hour or two in the middle of the night and then back to sleep until morning. I don't blame him, that's the longest he's been up since he got home! Lots of milestones yesterday. This morning he looked much better, I guess sleep is the answer to the paleness.
Today we had a party for Owen at Skateworld. Tim stayed with Dave and my dad came over to replace the toilet. Yes, the one I mentioned was leaking over a month ago. Thanks Dad's home repair service! I finally took him up on his offer to help. It was nice to get a little break out of the house. I was going to come home mid-day to check on things but the guys kind of gave me a gentle ribbing before I left, "She doesn't trust us" so I just told them no parties and went about my way. ;) They were fine without me of course and I'm glad I didn't have to worry.
A few friends from school, a few friends from life (because school isn't life?) and some family joined us for skating, pizza and cake and then we headed over to the movie theater so they could see The Secret World of Arrietty. I drove some of them over to the mall but didn't stay because I felt like I had already been gone long enough but a couple of the mom's stayed because they wanted to see the movie too. At the skating rink Owen bought some fake mustaches. Apparently they were a big hit!
I love when they go along with stuff. They aren't too cool for the silliness just yet, I hope they are NEVER too cool. I adore these kids!
When I got home Dave was doing great so I made sure he was situated and then passed out for a little while. Ah nap! Then I woke up, Dave and I ate dinner, Owen came home and left again to stay at Tim and Rose's (good luck to them! He ate a lot of sugar today!) and I fell asleep again. No wonder I'm up in the middle of the night now.
ALSO! Dave touched his right thumb to his right pinky tonight! SQUEE! I asked how his dexterity was going and he lifted up his hand and showed me he could do it. He looked almost as surprised as I was! He's doing a good job of retraining things, I hope his strength continues to increase.
I noticed just before he went to sleep that his left ankle and foot is looking a little swollen. It wasn't yesterday so if it's still like that in the morning I'll call the hospice nurse and see if there's anything we should do for it. For now he's sleeping pretty deeply. I've walked in and out of there a few times and he hasn't woken up. Usually he pops his eyes open. Tired guy!
We want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who helped make Owen's birthday so fantastic. He really had a great birthday! Dave's had a couple of busy days and he was thankfully around to see his boy turn into a teenager and now we're looking forward to David's birthday in a couple of weeks. No matter how bleak things can get there is ALWAYS something to look forward to.
Today we had a party for Owen at Skateworld. Tim stayed with Dave and my dad came over to replace the toilet. Yes, the one I mentioned was leaking over a month ago. Thanks Dad's home repair service! I finally took him up on his offer to help. It was nice to get a little break out of the house. I was going to come home mid-day to check on things but the guys kind of gave me a gentle ribbing before I left, "She doesn't trust us" so I just told them no parties and went about my way. ;) They were fine without me of course and I'm glad I didn't have to worry.
A few friends from school, a few friends from life (because school isn't life?) and some family joined us for skating, pizza and cake and then we headed over to the movie theater so they could see The Secret World of Arrietty. I drove some of them over to the mall but didn't stay because I felt like I had already been gone long enough but a couple of the mom's stayed because they wanted to see the movie too. At the skating rink Owen bought some fake mustaches. Apparently they were a big hit!
When I got home Dave was doing great so I made sure he was situated and then passed out for a little while. Ah nap! Then I woke up, Dave and I ate dinner, Owen came home and left again to stay at Tim and Rose's (good luck to them! He ate a lot of sugar today!) and I fell asleep again. No wonder I'm up in the middle of the night now.
ALSO! Dave touched his right thumb to his right pinky tonight! SQUEE! I asked how his dexterity was going and he lifted up his hand and showed me he could do it. He looked almost as surprised as I was! He's doing a good job of retraining things, I hope his strength continues to increase.
I noticed just before he went to sleep that his left ankle and foot is looking a little swollen. It wasn't yesterday so if it's still like that in the morning I'll call the hospice nurse and see if there's anything we should do for it. For now he's sleeping pretty deeply. I've walked in and out of there a few times and he hasn't woken up. Usually he pops his eyes open. Tired guy!
We want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who helped make Owen's birthday so fantastic. He really had a great birthday! Dave's had a couple of busy days and he was thankfully around to see his boy turn into a teenager and now we're looking forward to David's birthday in a couple of weeks. No matter how bleak things can get there is ALWAYS something to look forward to.
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