Chapter 332 - Not So Weary as Worn Out
She remains in Re-hab. I'm there every morning between 7.30am and 8.15am to remove the pump, sometimes a nurse assists with showering, while I prepare the pump and attach it. Most days I'm there for several hours in the morning then again in the afternoon, sometimes I have lunch there as well. She has become lonely and bored, rarely doing any crochet, has read one page of a historical romance I bought her to replace the e-book reader which she asked me to take home for she was afraid it may be dropped and break, watches little TV and skims the daily paper (whether local or Big Smoke papers, why does any one bother to read them?). She keeps telling me not to buy her "puzzle magazines" because the stories in them are junk; quite so but at least the puzzles give her some little mental stimulation so I intend to persist buying them for her. Yesterday she asked me to stay with her for company. I wonder which is worse, having another patient in one's room or being alone? The hospital staff are always in and out of her room, and she is taken for a walk around the corridors pushing her walker. When I've assisted her with such a walk her left leg usually fails her before completing the circuit.
She made a comment on Wednesday that her hand tremors are worse, although she thought herself more ON than OFF during the day, yet never attaining the "sense of freedom" she hopes for. Having her chart ON/OFF periods half hourly has not been successful, although one day she marked being ON most of the day with added up and down arrows to suggest waxing and waning. Perhaps so, I have only noticed that her leg dyskinesias are at times quite brisk. Late that same Wednesday night, with her legs thrashing, bed clothes tied in knots, unable to sleep, she piddled the bed, then after a change of sheets she was unable to sleep until about 4am.
Polly the PD Nurse was given permission by the Neuro for me to raise the Apomine from 9ml to 10ml. "Can't be done unless the Re-hab doctor signs off on it" I was told. Rather difficult since the doctor was absent. Then a FAX had to be organised advising this change. So late on Thursday another doctor received the FAX and wrote the change on my PWP's sheets. So on Friday I filled the syringe with 10ml Apomine and 10ml saline. Amusingly, my PWP told the resident doctor sometime on Friday that the Apomine had been increased and then went storming off because she had not been told about it. I am rather pleased that none of the staff realised that I had increased the Apomine from 8ml to 9ml Friday of last week, on the verbal advice of Polly and the Neuro. I appreciate that a medication paper trail needs to be maintained, even though we are self medicating.
Also on Thursday we had a round table meeting with staff involved in her welfare to discuss the Transitional Aged Care Program. All up, we must have talked with all of them for an hour and then again in her room with the manager of the programme. ACAT need to assess her again to declare her eligible. Seemingly as a result of the meeting where I expressed my concerns about chocolate coloured piddle (after air exposure for an hour or so) that leaves slimy stick residue in the commode, a decision was made to insert a catheter that afternoon. Works well except for the one occasion when the plumbing sprang a leak. An initial pathology test indicated no UTI, but by Friday morning (after culturing I suppose) a bladder infection had been detected. I wonder just how long and how many useless UTI tests ago this infection began? She continues to experience a need to urinate which puzzles her.
I am hard pressed to say there have been any changes in her condition now, on her third day with 10ml of Apomine. Her "conventional" PD pills remain unchanged since I last reported them. She sweats so much her face looks as if she has been in a sauna, and most of that I suspect is the high humidity in the hospital rooms, because I sweat like a pig while there as well. She says she is drinking a lot yet I somehow doubt it. This morning she asked a nurse whether there was a fan available, but no, people sometimes brought in their own. So I went home to collect a small fan, then did some shopping for dried fruit and jubes for her, then took the lot to the hospital. One matter of minor note is that the tingling in her feet and legs has changed to a burning sensation. Also she has been experiencing the shudder sensation, "someone walked over my grave" feeling, whenever she nods off, causing her to wake with a start. Each evening meal arrives sometime after 5.30pm so clashes with her 6pm meds and that can't be good for her at times.
She has had few phone calls, mostly because the hospital phone system to the wards has been defective for most of the time she has been there, but now seems to be fixed, and there seems to be a general ban on patients ringing out. She has only had two visitors; a lady who is a hospital visitor from our Parky Group and our neighbour at the rear. Partly my fault because I did not broadcast far and wide that she was in there.
She made a comment on Wednesday that her hand tremors are worse, although she thought herself more ON than OFF during the day, yet never attaining the "sense of freedom" she hopes for. Having her chart ON/OFF periods half hourly has not been successful, although one day she marked being ON most of the day with added up and down arrows to suggest waxing and waning. Perhaps so, I have only noticed that her leg dyskinesias are at times quite brisk. Late that same Wednesday night, with her legs thrashing, bed clothes tied in knots, unable to sleep, she piddled the bed, then after a change of sheets she was unable to sleep until about 4am.
Polly the PD Nurse was given permission by the Neuro for me to raise the Apomine from 9ml to 10ml. "Can't be done unless the Re-hab doctor signs off on it" I was told. Rather difficult since the doctor was absent. Then a FAX had to be organised advising this change. So late on Thursday another doctor received the FAX and wrote the change on my PWP's sheets. So on Friday I filled the syringe with 10ml Apomine and 10ml saline. Amusingly, my PWP told the resident doctor sometime on Friday that the Apomine had been increased and then went storming off because she had not been told about it. I am rather pleased that none of the staff realised that I had increased the Apomine from 8ml to 9ml Friday of last week, on the verbal advice of Polly and the Neuro. I appreciate that a medication paper trail needs to be maintained, even though we are self medicating.
Also on Thursday we had a round table meeting with staff involved in her welfare to discuss the Transitional Aged Care Program. All up, we must have talked with all of them for an hour and then again in her room with the manager of the programme. ACAT need to assess her again to declare her eligible. Seemingly as a result of the meeting where I expressed my concerns about chocolate coloured piddle (after air exposure for an hour or so) that leaves slimy stick residue in the commode, a decision was made to insert a catheter that afternoon. Works well except for the one occasion when the plumbing sprang a leak. An initial pathology test indicated no UTI, but by Friday morning (after culturing I suppose) a bladder infection had been detected. I wonder just how long and how many useless UTI tests ago this infection began? She continues to experience a need to urinate which puzzles her.
I am hard pressed to say there have been any changes in her condition now, on her third day with 10ml of Apomine. Her "conventional" PD pills remain unchanged since I last reported them. She sweats so much her face looks as if she has been in a sauna, and most of that I suspect is the high humidity in the hospital rooms, because I sweat like a pig while there as well. She says she is drinking a lot yet I somehow doubt it. This morning she asked a nurse whether there was a fan available, but no, people sometimes brought in their own. So I went home to collect a small fan, then did some shopping for dried fruit and jubes for her, then took the lot to the hospital. One matter of minor note is that the tingling in her feet and legs has changed to a burning sensation. Also she has been experiencing the shudder sensation, "someone walked over my grave" feeling, whenever she nods off, causing her to wake with a start. Each evening meal arrives sometime after 5.30pm so clashes with her 6pm meds and that can't be good for her at times.
She has had few phone calls, mostly because the hospital phone system to the wards has been defective for most of the time she has been there, but now seems to be fixed, and there seems to be a general ban on patients ringing out. She has only had two visitors; a lady who is a hospital visitor from our Parky Group and our neighbour at the rear. Partly my fault because I did not broadcast far and wide that she was in there.
posted by Kilpike | 12:19 pm
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