Monday, March 13, 2006

No liver biopsy, Seroquil upped, Feeding tube clogged

The liver biopsy did not happen today. In fact, I heard that it hasn't been ordered. I don't know what to make of that. I'll ask tomorrow. Tomorrow the regular ID guy that's familiar with Denise's case will be back, so I'm on pins & needles to find out what the next step is. The feeding tube clogged this morning. People came to try to unclog it, even running a wire through it. But nothing worked, so Denise is going down to the radiology department tomorrow so they can have a look and hopefully unclog the thing. In the mean time, she's eating about half of each meal and having snacks in between, and again to day everything stayed down. She has not complained about the pain in her side, nor has she had painkiller. I wonder if the Seroquil (used for bipolar disorder, also for anti-anxiety & insomnia) that she started on has some pain-relieving effects? Speaking of...
I forgot to mention yesterday that Denise wasn't able to do some simple math addition problems correctly (no wonder she was able to shop... and shop... and shop). Based on that, and what the neurologist saw with the EEG, he's upping Denise's dose of Seroquil from 25mg at night to 50mg (people that regularly use Seroquil take 300mg a few times a day, so Denise's is a very low dose).
Denise stayed up all last night and slept most of the day. That makes it tough to bring the kids for a visit. And while staying up, she was looking over the couple of catalogs that I brought. Today I changed up the plans. I removed the stimuli, replacing catalogs with a sketch pad & colored pencils, a health magazine, and a home improvement book about fences. I thought Denise could get some ideas & do some designing... the fence in back's about to fall over and we wanted to put one up in front to keep the kids contained. I also bought her a book that lets you make funky critters out of pipe cleaners, suction cups, and punch-out shapes from the book. She'd really like to do some sculpting, but the clay is a bit messy and Play-Doh isn't quite her thing. She's missing out on PT & OT. So tonight when she woke up we went for a walk around the floor. She did three laps with her walker, and pushed her own IV pole for part of a lap. She also picked up the pace for a few yards, almost jogging with her walker. We also did some leg exercises while holding the rail along the hallway. One of the nurses said that we should try out for the Rockettes. Maybe Denise should. My legs are too hairy.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Phil -- We just wanted to reassure you and Denise of our ongoing prayers for each of you. You are loved. Gene and Ginger

March 14, 2006 5:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Praying for you this morning here in Coalinga, Phil and Denise!

March 14, 2006 5:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Phaithphul Phil,
Thanks for keeping us up dated. We so appreciate hearing about you and your gal. We are praying and looking forward to what God has planned.
love,
Ron and Terry

March 15, 2006 8:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Praying everything is OK. We get concerned out here in "blog land" when we don't get regular updates. We'll up the prayer a notch!

March 15, 2006 10:07 PM  

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