Thursday, March 31, 2011

Another month gone - wow! And Spring is definitely here - the flowering trees are all in bloom and my bulbs in my balcony planters are also blooming. Beautiful day today - weather wise.
For John is was a really bad day.
Bishop Silas Ng came from Richmond to visit John this morning. It was so good to see him and have a visit and prayer with him. However, John was not feeling too well and could not communicate very much at all. But I know he appreciated the visit.
At 2pm he began to get muscle cramps, in his feet, legs and back. They just got worse and were soon joined by all the other symptoms - sweating, difficulty in breathing etc. The only improvement over the last bad attack he had was that he was not coughing up so much phlegm as the pneumonia is pretty much gone.
This time it went on for hours and the Percocet and Flexerol (muscle relaxant) did not make any difference. By 5pm he was in terrible shape and the nurse called a doctor in. He prescribed morphine. It seemed to help and settle things down. So at 7pm when Margie called and said did i want to go out for coffee, I said sure. She picked me up at the hospital and we went to a local coffee shop and I had some supper. But when I returned to the hospital before 8pm  John was much worse again. In fact - really, bad. Another dose of morphine did not help at all. Finally a little before 9pm I told the nurse to give him his sleeping meds and knock him out because I did not know how much more he could take.
Almost instantly, when she gave the meds, all the symptoms stopped, even though he did not fall asleep for another half hour. This is something I need to discuss with the doctor tomorrow.
Anyway, any hope of him coming home tomorrow is gone. In fact, I do not want him home like that. He needs to stay where he is until they solve this mystery.
Please pray for the doctor to have wisdom. I am very concerned that they are focussing on the pain (which obviously has to be dealt with)  but not the cause. As I said to Margie, it's like giving you something for pain, but not setting your broken leg

Anyway - two thumbs down for today.

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Wednesday March 30, 2011

John had a pretty good day today. He had several minor attacks of cramping but they did not last long. If he has another day as good as that tomorrow the doctor MAY let him come home of Friday. The doctor says he has to have two days where they do not have to do anything for him in the hospital that I cannot do at home. But because John does have an occassional good day regardless of what we do I will not count on it too much until we get tomorrow over with.
Please pray he will continue to respond to the various meds as he should.

Anyway - a one thumbs up for today. Yeah.

Tuesday March 29, 2011

When I got to the hospital today the nurse told me that John had had a restless night. He seemed OK in the morning and into the afternoon. Mostly he just watched TV. However, about 5:00pm he began to get severe muscle cramps in his legs and feet. The doctor had not seen John on his morning rounds and arrived at his bedside a half hour later. This was the first time he has actually witnessed one of John's episodes and he was quite disturned by the amount of rigidity, cramping and sweating.
He immediately ordered a muscle relaxant for him and told me not to count on John coming home on Thursday as we had discussed earlier. He wants him to have two days of no "attacks" before he comes home.
Debbie dropped in and had a visit with us today which was very nice. Margie called and asked me to go out with her to supper but I did not feel John was doing well enough at that time for me to leave him.
The lady across the way who has Parkinsons and dementia is being moved to another ward tomorrow. She was supposed to go today but apparently whoever was in the bed she was supposed to move in to, was refusing to leave. Interesting place.
I left the hosital early tonight - just after 8pm - as I was so tired. I hope John was good until they brought his sleeping meds to him.
Now I am off to bed.

One thumbs down

Monday March 28, 2011

I went to bed at 8:15pm last night and slept through until 7am this morning. Boy, that felt good.
I was up to the hospital early so that I would see the doctor when he made his rounds. He tells me that the pneumonia is now clearing nicely. He is pleased with the difference the Percocet has made for John. He wants to continue to treat him in hospital for the next few days, but if there re no major set-backs, he will release John to come home on Thursday.
I have mixed feelings about that. It will be wonderful (and much easier on me) to have him home. Howeverr, he is still having episodes - he had one at 5pm tonight and he was not due for the Percocet for another hour but the nurse gave it to him early and then he settled down again. I am just anxious as to whether the problem is really solved or not. However, there are two more days to see how things go.
John watched TV for most of the day and was quite comfortable up until the 5pm session.
Not quite sure how to rate today

Sunday, March 27, 2011

John had a good night and seemed fine when I got to the hospital this morning. Margie picked me up at the hospital at 9:30am and I went with her to church at St Simon's in North Vancouver. This was the church that John served in as an honourary assistant for many years - but it is too far away for me to attend any more with the time restraints I have. It was wonderful to see so many old friends, and since it was their Renewal weekend, the guest speaker, The Rev David Mcfarlane gave a really great sermon.
John had a good day the rest of the day as well. He had one slight episode of sweating but other than that has been quite stable. We rented a TV for him today and he was happily watching that when I left tonight. Having the TV plus no bad episodes, meant that I came home much earlier tonight. PTL Now it's early to bed for me.

So a definite one thumbs up for today.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Well, the sleeping meds must have worked because I did not get called back to the hospital last night.
When I got to the hospital today John was sleeping. He woke up at about 11am and said he felt pretty good. Although our doctor was supposed to be on call this weekend and said he would see us today, we never saw him so I did not get a chance to get his opinion on what happened last night.
In the afternoon Margie dropped around to the hospital and took me out for lunch at Tim Hortons. But when I got back John was beginning to show signs of rigidity. He told me that he was going home with me tonight. At first I thought he was joking because the lady in the bed across from him with dementia is always wanting to go hom - then I realized he was serious!! I had to tell him he has to stay there until they have a better handle on all of this. For the rest of the afternoon and all evening the symptoms seemed to come and go - never getting really bad but never being far away.
They switched the kind of antibiotics he is being given via intravenous - I thought that the pneumonia was doing well, but apparently the doctor was not happy with the progress so is trying a different kind. I am told he is to get it for 7 days - I don't know if that means he is definitely going to be there for the next week or not.
I ordered a TV for him today to help him fill the time (and to save my voice a little bit)
I have read one detective novel to him and we are over half way through Michael J Foxes book, Always Looking Up. My voice is getting rough!!!
The nurse gave John his sleeping meds at 9pm tonight so I could come home by 9:30pm. They are very helpful. 8:30am - 9:30 pm - feels like a long day.

One thumbs down

Friday, March 25. 2011

Yesterday the doctor put John on Percocet. This morning, because it seemed to stop the symptoms he was having, the doctor increased the dosage to 2 tablets every 5 hours and John had quite a good day. I was so relieved to think that we had found a solution. I asked the doctor why this was helping and he said it was blocking the signals to the atatomic nervous system that was triggering all these symptoms.
He seemed quite good so I took the opportunity to take the evening off and go out to dinner with our church group. We had a great steak dinner at a nearby restaurant.
I just got home and there was a message on the phone to call the hospital.
The nurse told me that John was in bad shape, that they had given him more Percocet and all his sleeping meds but so far he was quite agitated and even even aggresive when they tried to tube feed him. They have had the doctor on call in to see him but he has only ordered Ativan for him if he does not settle down.
If this continues they will call me to come back up to the hospital .tonight
Usually the bedtime meds knock him out and I hope that is what will happen tonight.
Fortunately, our doctor is on call this weekend so he will be in to see John tomorrow morning and we can see what to do next.
I am so disappointed as I thought we had found an easy solution!!

I thought I would be giving a one thumbs up but now it is a one thumbs down.