Paul has been doing very well since my last update. He's been eating well and taking his Decadron after each meal, and I've been sneaking the phenobarbitol and ativan into his milkshake every night. There was one night when he didn't sleep very well, but the rest of the nights have been good.
He's been playing a lot of solitaire. He sometimes tries it on the computer, but that doesn't work as well as with the cards. Usually I set the cards up for him, and get him started, and then he pretty much remembers how the game goes. He doesn't have any trouble recognizing the numbers. He sometimes needs a little help seeing where he can play, but once I say "you can play this card", he can usually figure out where it goes.
On Saturday a small group from choir came over and sang for Paul. A couple of people sang solos, the organist played some numbers on the piano, and then we all sang a couple of songs. Paul really enjoyed it. Then Saturday evening, Paul's co-worker came and had supper with us. We had a great visit with him.
On Sunday Mom & Paul & I sang with the choir. I wasn't too sure how it would go since they were singing up in front, but Paul wanted to do it, and it went just fine. It was a song we had sung before and Paul was able to harmonize on "Ah".
Paul seemed to be kind of agitated yesterday and tried to "fix" the door to the attic several times. I'm not sure why he thought it needed fixing. He wasn't able to explain it to me and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to "unfix" it if he did something to it, so I tried distracting him by suggesting we go play solitaire or go to K-mart to get a new puzzle. That seemed to work ok.
Paul's friend Bob stopped by last night, and we had a real nice visit with him. Then we watched a movie and Paul was his old self, making fun of the sad parts, etc.
The Hospice nurse came by this morning. I told her that Paul had been running a low grade fever and it sounded to me like he was wheezing a little bit. She listened to his lungs and said he did have some wheezing in the right side, top & middle lobe. She said Dr. Will would probably prescribe an antibiotic for him. I guess they did call something in to the pharmacy, but we haven't gotten it yet.
We decided to go downtown today, in spite of Paul's wheezing. He said he felt fine, and he has been asking to go downtown for about a week. Since it was warm and sunny today, it seemed like a good day to go. We stopped at the Planetarium, ate the sandwiches we had taken with us on a bench by the lake, and went inside the Planetarium for bathrooms. We thought about looking at the exhibits since today was a free day, but Paul had been wanting to go to the music store downtown, so we decided we'd come back to the Planetarium another day.
We then went on downtown to Tower records. There's a parking garage right next to the store, which is very convenient. We bought a bunch of bargain CD's and then walked about half a block to the Palmer House to rest and use the bathrooms before heading home. We pushed Paul in the wheelchair the whole time, and it worked just fine. We're listening to our new CDs now.
Continue to: Feb. 12, 1999
Return to: Diary of a Brain Tumor Patient's Wife
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Created: June 11, 1999
Last updated: July 20, 2010