Thursday Sept. 3, 09
A lot has happened in a few days. The pain patch has been increased to 125mg of fentanyl every three days. The vicoden is now 3-4 pills versus 5 pills in a 12 hour period. Mary the VNA nurse was being proactive and asked Dr. Eltabackh for a morphine prescription to have on hand, but MD vetoed. He felt Val was not taking too much vicoden as of yet. The oxygen was also increased from 2 to 3%. Val's oxygen saturations were fluctuating low 90's which is acceptable to mid 80's which is not acceptable. By increasing the oxygen and increasing the pain control Val may experience less daily confusion we pray.

Val is not able to sign her name writing due to the weakness and shakiness. Dad filled out the handicap sticker application.

The decision to finally take a shower was accepted by Val after 8 days. It was a choice of Dad giving her the shower or a home health nurse coming in to do it. The fight was stopped and Val let Dad help her to get clean. The VNA nurse Mary suggested to Dad that he could remove the shower doors in his master bath and get a transfer tub bench instead of the regular shower chair. There will come a time where Val is only sponge bathing in bed. The pros and cons have to be weighed.

Val is having difficulty getting up the stairs to her room at night. Dad and Val have to decide where it would be easier to have Val permanently as she gets weaker. Downstairs offers her the hospital bed, near to the kitchen and a half bathroom. (Our thought would be to bring down a single bed and remove the love seat so Dad could also sleep downstairs.) The other option is to have Val upstairs permanently in her own bed with access to the full bath. This plan would require help to exit the upstairs if there was a need. Val still wants to go ahead with her chemo planned for the Sept. 15 and 22 respectively.

Love and prayers to Val always..... Salynn