Status
Besides her pain patches, she received a bit less than her regular Oxy and Ativan dose last night. It’s a touch more than the evening before but less than that which sedated her. My goal was to have her awake and alert in the morning.
She awoke at 7:00am and seemed moderately lucid. She had a small but complete breakfast. So far it was a good day.
After breakfast, the headaches returned. I treated them with cold towels but after nearly 30-minutes with back, neck, and head pain, I opted for a small dose of Oxy and Ativan. There were hours until the first visitors arrived at 11:30pm so the impact of such a small dose should be minimal.
I was wrong. These medications were enough to knock her out for the majority of the day. She had five visitors today but had no more than 20-minutes of conscious time amongst all of them.
She ate again at dinner time. I had to transfer her from bed to her wheelchair so I could tidy her beddings-It was a mess and completely nonfunctional.
As she returned to bed after eating, the movement triggered a serious seizure. It was easily five-minutes long. After regaining consciousness, her right neck muscle would not come out of spasm. The Hospice RN On-Call agreed that I should treat the issue as a muscle pain and forgo pain-killers for as long as possible. I iced and massaged her neck as we waited for the spasm to stop.
It took a bit of work and her bedtime medication, but now she’s sleeping peacefully.
She has four more visitors tomorrow so we’ll see how well she does then.