Monday March 7th

What the hell?  A sleepy day?  Not expected but welcomed when you consider the seizures she had over the weekend. We had to forgo any meds that couldn’t be administered another way.  No food or drink all morning.

The RN showed up and we discussed her condition in detail. She thought the seizures were a sign of tumor progression especially since there were no other factors.  She couldn’t say for sure.  I mentioned the slight temperature swing but her opinion was that a couple of degrees would make no difference.  She instructed me for future seizures to: 1) administer valium instead of waiting.  It should relax her and reduce seizure related muscle pain; and 2) do not use my sternal rub technique to wake her.  It won’t make a difference and will only cause her pain.

She trumped my sternal rub thing because Satomi had a big ass bruise on her chest from the accumulated rubbing through all of her seizures.  I rubbed pretty hard so it doesn’t surprise me that I left a mark.  I feel terrible about it.  Here is an out-of-focus picture of the bruise.

Sorry it’s such a bad picture.  I had to take it up close.  Any farther away and you’d see her boobs.  Remember her sternum is her upper chest bone under her larynx.  It’s about three inches across.  Yikes!

The RN showed me indicators of dehydration all over Satomi’s body-cheeks, abdomen, legs, and hands. The pee color is also very dark.

We spend a lot of time on bedsore prevention.  It’s going to be a real effort to keep her properly supported and varying her position enough to maintain her skin condition. She only has the single bedsore now but we predict that there are more to come shortly.

We need to roll her onto her right side and then change to her left side every two-hours all day. Her ankles must be raised above the bed surface at all times.  Her arms and head should not come into contact with anything hard such as a bed rail.  It all makes sense so I’m not worried but it’s just more pain for Satomi.

After her sponge bath, Satomi was very lucid and was talking a bit with her Mom.  I was surprised and happy.  It stayed that way until just before bedtime.

I prepared her bedtime oral meds and walked over to Satomi.  Before I had a chance to give her the meds, she tried to speak to me.  I paused and asked her to repeat it a bit louder.  She gave me a funny look and a few seconds later proceeded to barf all over her clean linens and bed shirt.  I had no idea what was coming and I just freaked out.  I had to leave the room and jump up and down.

Now my semi-quiet evening would be filled with barf covered things.  Yukk!  I gathered up the cleaning supplies and spare linens and get to it.  A few minutes into my efforts, I smelled something awful. What was that?!

I move her blanket and start poking around.  The Poo Monster has attacked!  This is getting pitiful.  Both Barf and Poo?  I had to leave the room again…damn, damn, damn.

Thirty solid minutes and a ton of cleaning supplies later, our lives are again at peace.  That was a lot of work.  Ahhhh!!!!

Satomi stayed awake until bedtime and took her meds just fine.  She’s sleeping now and I’m beat.

Good night all.