Paul's had a pretty good week so far. On Monday afternoon he had an angry flare-up and then I realized he had a headache, so I put a patch on his back and secured it well with some first aid tape. The next day, he asked me to take the patch off because it was itching. I don't know whether it was the patch itself or the tape, but I went ahead and took it off. We haven't had much luck with the patch. The first 2 times that we used it, it came off within a day. I don't know if he took it off on purpose (he didn't remember) or if it accidentally came off.
I had asked the Hospice nurse about giving him Tylenol 3 which we had on hand, and she said to throw it away because it was too old, but she called Dr. Will for a new prescription, so I've been giving him that when he has pain. On Tuesday, he had pain in his knees. I don't know what would have caused that, but he could barely walk. I haven't seen the Hospice nurse since then, but I'll ask her about it. The Tylenol 3 seemed to take care of it.
He's been doing real well taking his medicine. He's also been sleeping well most nights. Tuesday night he had a hard time settling down and was up a lot during the night, but last night was much better. He's been playing solitaire quite a bit lately. We started out on the computer, but he would sometimes click the wrong thing and lose the program, so I thought maybe regular cards would be easier. I was able to find a complete deck and got him started with them. He does quite well - occasionally gets stuck and can't remember what to do, but once I get him started again, he does ok.
Mom got here last night about 7:30. Philip & Karen picked her up from the airport. We had a nice dinner and then Karen went out to do some things with her friends and Philip went back to his apartment.
Continue to: Feb. 9, 1999
Return to: Diary of a Brain Tumor Patient's Wife
Created and maintained by Renette Davis. Send comments to Renette by clicking here.
Created: June 11, 1999
Last updated: July 20, 2010