September 28, 2017

We encountered some new problems today that left us all, including the Hospice folks, scratching our heads. I had mentioned in past blogs that Cliff's pain management was pretty much under control with the methadone but after missing several doses, it sent him into a tail spin. During the night he had a lot of difficulty with pain and breathing and then this morning he was really suffering. After my emergency call to Hospice, we gave him more pain meds and anxiety medicine through the PEG and it seemed to do the trick for awhile. Then when our Hospice nurse came, Cliff's pain level increased and I drained his Pleurex. Right after that, he was hit with a bout of nausea which he has never experienced. I was relieved the Hospice nurse was there and he had me give Cliff some anti-nausea medicine in his PEG again. This seemed to help but Cliff was extremely groggy and slept for quite awhile. When the Methadone was due again, I woke him up and gave him all the meds he required through the PEG. Once again, after about five or ten minutes, the nausea began.
Our Hospice folks believe this may all be related to the methadone screw up on their part and for the next 24 hour period, when we administer the methadone, we also will give him the anti-nausea medication and the morphine when needed. He has been able to sleep a lot today but he is so very groggy and 'drugged' up that we all miss the guy who was stabilized and excited about coming home just yesterday morning.
We are all hoping tomorrow will bring some stabilization.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morning update 9/15/17

Image
       For those of you just finding out about our courageous husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend . . .   About two weeks ago, Cliff went to the doctor for a check up and x-rays since he had been losing weight and had a persistent cough. After a series of tests, the diagnosis was devastating and has brought us to where we are today. Cliff has stage 4 lung cancer which has rapidly spread into his lymph nodes in his neck, chest and abdomen. He is having an extremely difficult time keeping food and fluids down and is experiencing frequent pain in his abdomen. He is able to use oxygen to help him breathe easier right now due to fluid on the lungs.        Tuesday he had a tube put in his right side to help drain fluid build up on the right side and hopefully dry up his lungs. Wednesday morning the pain was so bad that he went to the ER where they decided that it was best to admit him over night to rehydrate him, help manage the pain and find out why he is unable to keep food d
Read more

Friday, September 15th

I am certain I will not be able to list all the details because we consulted with several doctors today and they all had some of the same information, a bit of conflicting information and it covered Cliff's ongoing problem with eating and keeping anything down, (not nausea) and a couple new problems that showed up which include a bacterial infection in his blood and blockage of his kidney. There was an endoscopy, I believe it's called, where they went down his esophagus to find out what was going on. The doctors say the opening to his stomach is so very small because of the pressure from the lymph nodes surrounding his stomach and esophagus. There were several options presented but so far we have decided to go with radiation to try and reduce the size of the lymph nodes so that Cliff can eat again. It has been several days since he has been able to eat anything and it is REALLY frustrating because he is VERY hungry. The other problems include the bacterial infection and the k
Read more

September 27, 2017

We were pretty excited about coming home today after a full 14 days in the hospital. Cliff was stabilized and Hospice and Palliative Care folks had assured us our transition and journey ahead would go smoothly with them at our side. It is difficult to share everything that happened today because it really was just one thing after another that went wrong!!! There were problems right after we arrived home, when our Hospice nurse arrived and we found out that none of the medicines that Cliff required in order to remain stabilized were delivered. He was due for several medications and after calling several pharmacies and having roadblocks each time, she ended up sending Tyler out to two of the pharmacies. It really is a very long story but the main problem was that Cliff began experiencing a lot of pain. The doctors had worked for three days to stabilized his meds and in just half a day home, it all was coming undone. There are quite a few more things that also went haywire with his PEG
Read more