Almost Wednesday,,,,,,,again.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

It is noon, Sunday, and Penny is sleeping comfortably.

She had a peaceful night again, but is very tired today. I mentioned there were no visitors that I knew of that were coming today except Tanya, and she said ‘that’s good, I just want to sleep.’ She has no energy at all. The doctor mentioned that this morning too. Said they are pretty good at pain management, but there is not much they can do about the energy level. Pam came and spent the afternoon with Pen.

11:00 PM Sunday.
It was not a very good night. When I came back to the hospital a little after 8 to spend the night again I found Penny sitting up in bed, crying and in pain, her IV line was tangled in one side of the bed and she was nauseous and throwing up. They were 3 people short staffed yesterday and got behind on her meds a little bit. Got her untangled and the nurse came in shortly afterward with the extra pain meds. Ten minutes later she was comfy again, hair brushed and all tucked in, drifting off to sleep.

10:00 AM Monday
We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. At 2 this morning they had to change one of the injection sites. Only took ten minutes but Penny finds it painful. She has been complaining for a long time, months, about how much her skin hurts all over, and when they tear that special tape off that holds the butterfly needle in she struggles with it. Well, they don’t tear it off, but rather peel it back slowly. Takes at least 5 minutes to get it off and she grimaces for every second of it. She has 3 or 4 of those needles in her all the time in different places for the different drugs they inject. Plus the IV in her hand. Poor girl must feel a little like a pincushion. And she was worried about the procedure that is being done today so that didn’t help either.

I read a few emails to Penny. Mom read some letters to her this morning too. Helped take her mind off things a little. She seldom opens her eyes but she does smile often when read to She has been comfortable and resting/sleeping since about 4 AM. I am glad they are running a little late this morning. Give her a chance to rest up a bit for it.

So, almost time to go downstairs for the ERCP.

10:00 PM Monday

They took Penny down for the ERCP about 1 and she was back in her room by 3. It didn’t work out today. Constricted space caused by one or more of the tumors, and partly because Penny has some tremors from the meds meant that they will have to try a different method. They have that booked for Wednesday.

Mom and Dad spent most of the day here, and Tanya was here this evening till I got back. Penny had a sleepy afternoon.

8:00 AM Tuesday

Had a pretty good night. Little confusion over wrong meds at 3 in the morning and they had to change the IV to her right hand but pretty comfortable otherwise. They woke us up at midnight saying our daughter was just on the phone complaining that her mom had a bad rash on her ass and that she wanted it fixed right now. Wrong room, but they almost had us convinced it was Tanya even though Penny has no rash problem anywhere. We did have a chuckle about that one.

Penny’s blood pressure was very low yesterday and her energy levels have dropped to pretty much zero. Her skin hurts and she finds even the loose hospital gowns constraining and irritating, so she drapes it instead of wearing it. Her oral fluid intake consists of a piece of ice no bigger than the size of a pea every few hours or so. They also started her on oxygen yesterday. They have the worst of the pain under control, but with the extra BT meds last night, her spasms have returned. They are almost as bad this morning as I have ever seen them. Her breathing pattern is changing when she is sleeping. And the jaundice is remarkably noticeable.

8:00 PM Tuesday

Almost Wednesday again.

It was a week ago I started doing this for Pen. The night she was admitted to hospital.
Feels like a month, at least. Lots of ups and downs during the day, and night. For everyone.

Mom and Dad spent the afternoon with her. Paula and Dennis popped in for a quick visit this evening.
Hope she has a good night. They are trying again tomorrow to insert the stent, and it is a more invasive procedure than the first one. She gave up wearing the gown altogether this afternoon. Having large fluctuations in her blood pressure, and the tests they do for oxygen are showing a steady decline.

Penny woke up for a moment, so I opened the blinds on the window beside her bed to give her a view of the sunset. Her room is on the 5th floor facing west, and it was especially pretty tonight. I asked her if she would like to have any input into the blog today.

She did. She said “ to say thank you to everyone for keeping in touch and for caring.” And then she went back to sleep.

Michael