Yesterday John slept for most of the morning. In the afternoon the Rev Ed Hird, from St Simon's Church in North Vancouver came to visit. The nurses had been giving John what they called "break through" doses of pain killers hoping to get ahead of the pain and thus prevent it. That worked fairly well for most of the day but seemed to stop working about 6pm and from then until bedtime he was very agitated, restless, and every so often he would raise up in bed - head and feet up and arms stretched out in fromt of him, looking absolutely terror stricken - whether that is from the meds, hallucinations or pain I do not know.
Today when I arrived he was already awake and quite lucid. He was able to talk better and I could understand almost everything he said. The Rev Ron Gibbs, the deacon from St Simon's was in to visit and pray with John today. Later John sat up in bed and watched TV for a little while. Then about 4:30pm John began to get rigid and shake all over. Sometimes, like yesterday, he would do the "zombie thing" as I call it - raising up with arms out etc. Other times he would just grab hold of my hand and squeeze it until the spasms stopped and other times he would tell me to massage his leg muscles or toes. The nurses gave him all the pain killers, muscle relaxants, and tranquilizers that they could, but once again he did not really settle down until he was given his sleeping pills and went to sleep. He kept them very busy between meds and changing his hospital gown and bedding because he was sweating so profusely.
I am exhausted from the emotional strain of watching him go through this.
I am praying that the new (to us) doctor who will be coming tomorrow will have some new ideas to help him.
I was sorry I did not get to church today but I knew I needed to be at the Hospice in the morning so had to skip church.
Two thumbs down for today
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