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.