Yesterday had some interesting moments. First and foremost, Dave did not take to morphine well. He had a lot of the major side effects. On top of this the one and only resident that we have seen on Dave's case can in and said..." Chemo is going well so I guess that we can discharge you" and then walked out of the room. Now if you are not in the Medical field you need to know that Residents have NO say at all. But when someone is reacting poorly to morphine and alone it can be a very scary experience for me. Luckily our good friend Jen works on the next ward and popped in to see him. She quickly tried to reassure him and went to speak to the nurse, who was quite upset with the resident. Our nurse and Jen came back to Dave and explained that he wouldn't be getting discharged until Monday unless everything was done and that there is a lot of things to do yet. Jen also talked to the nurse about the morphine and Amanda(our nurse) had also noticed a change and was already in the process of getting it changed.
I got in at noon and noticed that Dave was not himself. He did seem to settle once I was there and he held onto my hand for dear life. It was hard to see one of the most articulate people in my life having difficulty grasping the words that he wanted and put them together. I also spoke to Amanda once I got there(I was very calm and collected. I left my emotional reaction at home.) She caught me up to speed and was thankful that I was flying off the handle. I told her was sure I knew which Doctor(aka the resident) and that I realize that she has no real say. Amanda says that the resident is new and not catching on. She also said that she spoke with her before she went into Dave's room and was very upset with what she did and then went back and rapped her knuckles for what she did. The Palliative team also was not impressed and did the same thing.
Dr. Hagen who is covering for Dr. Labrie(our palliative Doctor...aka Quality of life Doctor) came in and reassessed Dave. He came to the conclusion that morphine is not the choice for Dave, but he didn't want to use a sister drug so switched families to fentanyl. He also wanted to give Dave a vitamin B12 shot because an B12 deficiency could manifest this way. He said that he was sure that it was the morphine that was effecting Dave but since the B12 shot wouldn't hurt him the Doctor just wanted to cover the bases.
So the morphine slowly wore off and Dave started to reappear. He did have some elevation in pain while we waited for the fentanyl. The evening nurse was excellent and thorough. She gave him a breakthough dose right away so that he could get on top of his pain. Unfortunately, with Fentanyl they can't run everything through the same line. So with Chemo running continously through one picc line port and fentanyl through the other...they had to start another IV. This time it only took one nurse and 2 pokes. Since Dave was back to himself and starting to doze I went home to be mom again!
The hardest part about last tonight was that Caleb was crying for Daddy at bedtime. Everytime he got up he was bawling and crying "Daddy, I want Daddy!". I did my best to console him and then broke into tears once he was asleep. Bedtimes are hard since that is Dave's job with the boys. Caleb seems to be alright this morning since it is normal not to see Daddy now but I am sure that he will miss him again tonite! Only a few more days and Daddy should be home.
We have been truly blessed by amazing friends and family. Everyone is rallying around us and lifting us up. God is an amazing God and he has many blessing for us yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment