Off to a rocky new start

Last evening was really nice. I thought we might be over the hump on this pain management thing. I thought hooking Angelique up to a medicine pump was brilliance itself. Well…

She awoke about 2 am in horrible pain. It seems that while she was awake, she utilized the pain button every 15 minutes, just like the nurse instructed her to do. But when she went to sleep, obviously she was no longer using the pain button. Well, the pain more than caught up with the constant dose she was being given.

I stayed up for the next two hours hitting the pain button every 15 minutes for her while she slept. I guess I finally succumbed to slumber about 4:00 am. Then she awoke again at 6, hurting again.

The hospice nurse came this morning and reprogrammed the pump to deliver a bigger constant dose, and a bigger “on demand” dose too. After a while, the new dose started to take hold and Angelique went back to sleep.

The afternoon started out better. She was able to move around, with mid-level pain, and visit with brothers Mark & James and Tammy & Kim. This time, she wasn't hitting the pain button every 15 minutes like she was last night. She did use it, but not as often.

She's asleep now, at about 6:00 pm, and seems to be resting pretty peacefully. The real story will be after she retires for the evening. We have to see how she reacts after she has not accessed the pain button for several hours.

I guess we'll know more tomorrow morning.

Thanks for caring. Stay tuned.