Paul was up quite a bit during the day yesterday. Our church organist came by and played the piano, and then she & I did some leg exercises with Paul. We decided to try making his legs move alternately like riding a bicycle, and he really seemed to enjoy that.
Philip & Karen both came by for a short time, and Paul's brother, Ray & his wife, Sue came up for the night. A friend from church also came over for awhile in the evening. Paul had several episodes where he started getting agitated, and he didn't want to eat anything in the afternoon or evening, so I wasn't able to give him Ativan in his food.
We had an unfortunate experience with the crisis care person yesterday. Apparently there were no Hospice nurses available, so we had a CNA from an agency. She was a new person, and while she was giving Paul his bath, she asked Ray what kind of work Paul did. Ray explained that he was a computer programmer at the University of Chicago Hospital Radiology Department. She said something like "What a shame that someone with such a brilliant mind would end up like this." Paul started to cry, and Ray said she didn't even seem to realize that she had upset him.
I was reading my email at the time, so I didn't see it happen, but I told Paul several times later in the evening that I was going to call Hospice today and tell them we don't want her to come anymore. Each time I said it, he nodded his head or said "Yes". We all felt very bad about it.
Paul had a good night, and has been pretty alert this morning. His vitals at 7:00 this morning were:
Blood pressure 160/92
Pulse 86
Respiration 20 - no apnea
Temp 97.5
axillary
Continue to: Apr. 1, 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 14, 1999
Last updated: July 21, 2010