Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Another bad day for John. This one never got good. He woke up feeling poorly and stayed laying down on the couch until after lunchtime. The meds never seemed to click in at all during the whole day. He either felt bad or awful - depending on if the meds were working a little bit or not at all. I had to give him extra meds throughout the day - which means he only got 3 of the 6 feedings he is supposed to have in a day.
I tried to do some shopping but I just got a couple of items put in my cart and John called and said he needed me at home and the line was too long, so I just left the cart and came home. John asked me not to go to Curves with Margie this evening as he did not want to be left alone for the 45 min. it takes us.
This afternoon we went to see our doctor. Apparently he is still away somewhere and we had an alternate. This man did not know John or any of his history. He did listen to his lungs and said they are getting better. The pneumonia is clearing. However, he did not have time or patience to listen to what John wanted to ask him (it takes time and patience to understand him) and he basically just wanted to talk over John and talk to me. We were not impressed. So he was not much help to us. I will have to phone the nurse clinician tomorrow and see if she has any suggestions. However, I already have a pretty good idea what she will say - she has no answers, she will talk to the doctor and get back to me if he has any suggestions - and I will never hear from her again.
John asked the doctor what he might die of with Parkinsons, and the doctor replied, "old age". Parkinsons itself is a nasty disease but not a fatal one, in itself.
We had two special phone calls today. John's brother, Jim, called from Barrie and John was able to talk to him for a few minutes. And our grandson, Quinton, called from Kitchener. We have not talked to him for a little while and it was great to hear about what he is doing. He especially wanted to talk to his Papa. He is now 13, his voice is now quite low, and he sounds very mature and grown up when he talks to us.
Bedtime was difficult again tonight although a little better than last night. We tried to do everything for him to get ready for bed earlier in the evening. I moved the antibiotics to an earlier time in the evening so I did not have to give them to him with the protein feeding near bedtime, and I gave him his meds 15 min early hoping to get ahead of the worst of the reaction. However, he was still in pretty bad shape by the time he was into bed. The good news was that I only had to lay down and hold his arms from going spastic for about 15 minutes and then  he was asleep. John said, if any 72 year old men want their wives to hug them to sleep they need to get Parkinsons. He still has his sense of humour!!!
Please pray for the pneumonia to be completely gone; for the meds to start to work properly and for John to get all 6 feedings (which only comes to 1800 calories)
Pray that I will not get discouraged.

A two thumbs down kind of day.