Day 38 - Sunday 5th June
Yvonne was on the early (8am-12pm), Marie on the afternoon shift (12pm-4pm) and I picked up the late (4pm-EyesShut).
kp had an unsettled morning and was sick a couple of times. I don't think she ate much during the day, and all she had for tea was a bit of soup and one bite of a bread bun. She feels constantly nauseous. We have sussed out why now. She is on a double-dose of Fentanol for the pain and as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, this is morphine based and one of the side-effects of Morphine is constipation and nausea. Marie raised this with the nurses and the Sister called the on-call doctor who was reluctant to change the pain medication and suggested we raise it with the consultants/doctors on their rounds tomorrow.
To alleviate the sickness, kp was given a super-duper anti-sickness drug. It seemed to have done the trick as kp wasn't sick at all on my watch.
Visitors
Karen had a conversation with Marie about visitors. For the past few days, kp has been very weak and has struggled to converse with any visitors and certainly we haven't been laughing much over the last few days because of the problems highlighted above. She has requested less visitors. Karen really enjoyed seeing new faces just a few days ago, but we think it is tiring her out too much in her current state. So..........Please STILL ring Marie if you would like to visit Karen, but don't be alarmed if the date/time is not in the next day or so.We are going to try and stagger the visitors to a greater degree.
Now, if Karen picks up in the next day or so, this request may change, but for now, the Queen has made her request.
Dad's Visit
My dad made the 100-mile trip up from Lancashire today. kp was quiet for the most part, but we did have 1 gem. I had given dad an orange to peel for kp, while I degowned and went to get some cold water. Dad, like me, doesn't go in for foods that need a lot of faff to get to the food itself and doesn't eat oranges for this reason.
Dad:- Hey kp, if you carry on for the next 5 weeks as you have done for these first 5 weeks, you'll be doing very well.
kp:- Do you think by then you will have peeled my orange ?
:-)
Dad only stayed about 1.5 hours because Karen was very tired.
dp snooze with kp
Like previous days, there was a time in the afternoon where kp was sleeping and I pulled up the chair bed, raised it to kp's height and had a snooze myself (virtually alongside kp).
When we both awoke, kp said that the nurses had said next time they catch me snoozing on the chairbed, they would come in and put a wee-willy-winky nightcap on me.
:-)
After our snooze, kp + I had a really good chat for a couple of hours. We shared some tender moments, some nice hugs and just generally had a nice time.
Bowel Problems
kp has had problems with bowel movements for the past 5 days. Given the amount she has been eating, this isn't altogether surprising, but she feels like she needs to go, but can't. So, tonight the nurses took action and gave kp an enema and when that didn't work a suppository. Within an hour, we had some success and for kp, some relief.
I gave kp her nighttime tablets and her Tamazepam and then it was time to go for the night.........
Back at 8am.
dp
kp had an unsettled morning and was sick a couple of times. I don't think she ate much during the day, and all she had for tea was a bit of soup and one bite of a bread bun. She feels constantly nauseous. We have sussed out why now. She is on a double-dose of Fentanol for the pain and as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, this is morphine based and one of the side-effects of Morphine is constipation and nausea. Marie raised this with the nurses and the Sister called the on-call doctor who was reluctant to change the pain medication and suggested we raise it with the consultants/doctors on their rounds tomorrow.
To alleviate the sickness, kp was given a super-duper anti-sickness drug. It seemed to have done the trick as kp wasn't sick at all on my watch.
Visitors
Karen had a conversation with Marie about visitors. For the past few days, kp has been very weak and has struggled to converse with any visitors and certainly we haven't been laughing much over the last few days because of the problems highlighted above. She has requested less visitors. Karen really enjoyed seeing new faces just a few days ago, but we think it is tiring her out too much in her current state. So..........Please STILL ring Marie if you would like to visit Karen, but don't be alarmed if the date/time is not in the next day or so.We are going to try and stagger the visitors to a greater degree.
Now, if Karen picks up in the next day or so, this request may change, but for now, the Queen has made her request.
Dad's Visit
My dad made the 100-mile trip up from Lancashire today. kp was quiet for the most part, but we did have 1 gem. I had given dad an orange to peel for kp, while I degowned and went to get some cold water. Dad, like me, doesn't go in for foods that need a lot of faff to get to the food itself and doesn't eat oranges for this reason.
Dad:- Hey kp, if you carry on for the next 5 weeks as you have done for these first 5 weeks, you'll be doing very well.
kp:- Do you think by then you will have peeled my orange ?
:-)
Dad only stayed about 1.5 hours because Karen was very tired.
dp snooze with kp
Like previous days, there was a time in the afternoon where kp was sleeping and I pulled up the chair bed, raised it to kp's height and had a snooze myself (virtually alongside kp).
When we both awoke, kp said that the nurses had said next time they catch me snoozing on the chairbed, they would come in and put a wee-willy-winky nightcap on me.
:-)
After our snooze, kp + I had a really good chat for a couple of hours. We shared some tender moments, some nice hugs and just generally had a nice time.
Bowel Problems
kp has had problems with bowel movements for the past 5 days. Given the amount she has been eating, this isn't altogether surprising, but she feels like she needs to go, but can't. So, tonight the nurses took action and gave kp an enema and when that didn't work a suppository. Within an hour, we had some success and for kp, some relief.
I gave kp her nighttime tablets and her Tamazepam and then it was time to go for the night.........
Back at 8am.
dp
posted by David Pollard at Sunday, June 05, 2005
2 Comments:
I had thought that receiving visitors may have been overwhelming and tiring so am not surprised by the blog comment to reduce them. I have left a message for Marie today to arrange to visit but will do so at Karens convenience whatever timescale that may be.
Hope that the anti sickness tablet helps, I know the nausea from tablet reaction can be horrible.
Not lost your sense of humour though, couldn't they invent ready peeled oranges for the men!! Keep your chin up, every long journey starts with the first small step and you have already taken so many.
Best Wishes Sue
like the other's im not surprised that visitors have tired you out kp...will keep blogging tho and wait a few weeks befor the next one....
david your doing a great job keep it up...
and good luck with the forms....they are endless.....and full of ...., want to know the far end of.... and then some..... keep smileing
love debsxx aka Marshy.xxx
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