Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Well, they say a change is as good as a rest and so today was a change, rather than a rest.
John had a one o'clock appointment with the eye specialist. She particularily checks on his eye health in regards to his diabetes.
But having the appointment to keep meant that I had to cancel the worker coming for my respite so no time to get shopping and things done.
Since I could not use Handydart for transportation, and the office is only 8 blocks away from where we live, I decided to push John in his wheelchair over to the appointment. Although there was a misty rain it was a nice walk and John enjoyed seeing lots of things he never gets to see.
The appointment went well, and his eyes are fine except that the cornea is drying out because he does not blink often enough (a condition of Parkinsons) so I now have to put eye drops in his eyes 4 times a day.
When the appointment was over it was time for his meds but when I went to give them to him, I found that I had forgotten to put the syringe in the meds bag. So I had no way to get the meds into the tube!!
I decided that the only thing I could do was wheel him home as fast as possible. However, on the way home I remembered that the Fraser Home Health office was nearby and that the nurses there might have a syringe.
So we went over there, and since he is registered with the home nursing service because they come in weekly to change the dressing on his tube feeding, they were happy to give me a syringe and I got the meds into him.
With that accomplished, we went to the Langley eye care centre which is in the same mall, and got his glasses straightened and repaired. On our way home from there, we dropped in at Value Village and John happily sat and looked through the DVD's - finding several he wanted to buy.
We were out for over 3 hours and all of that time he was fine
When we got home, he did well for awile but about 6pm he started to have diffiulty and within an hour he was back to all the old symptoms again.
So - I don't know if the new meds are working better or not.
It is very confusing at the moment.
My latest theory is that maybe the protein feeding is too close to the meds - because it does conflict with them. My reasons for thinking that is that while we were out today, although I gave him meds, I skipped the feeding because it is too hard to do. The same when we went to see the neurologist and he was fine then too.
But if so, it doesn't explain why that does not happen all the time - and why only in the later part of the day. 
The other good news is that John's new mattress arrived today - finally.
So I am hoping he will have a better sleep tonight, and maybe, he will not be calling me in the night to move the cushion under his feet!!!
 I am going to give today a 2 thumbs up for the morning and afternoon - but two thumbs down for the evening.