Today was a peaceful, sleepy day.
Last night, I helped Penny get ready for bed (evening meds, etc.) around 10pm. She felt warm, so I took her temperature. She had a bit of a fever (a bit under 100 degrees), so I gave her some Tylenol. Within minutes she was asleep again. By 10:30, her temperature was normal, and it remained normal through the night and all day today.
She slept through the night without waking up. At 9, when the personal attendant arrived, I had to wake her up. We helped her wash up and change clothes, and we changed the sheets, etc. By 9:30, Penny was asleep again. I woke her at noon when the nurse came to check on her, but she was pretty sleepy during that visit.
Around 1, she was hungry and had a bit of lunch, and she’s been sleeping peacefully since then. We’ve also made it through the day without any “as needed” medications for pain/nausea/fever – a first.
This is an improvement over the last couple days which included quite a few restless periods where she either tossed and turned in her bed, or was convinced she needed to get out of the bed for some reason, or was annoyed with the rail, or was feeling painful and couldn’t get comfortable. Friday night we were up at least once each hour from 1:30 am until morning. Saturday night was a little better: she woke at 2, 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30.
Last night the only one who woke up in the night was me – I guess she has me trained. Each time I checked on her she was sleeping peacefully.
The new bed rails have been good. She has figured out that she can (attempt to) get out of bed by scooting to the foot end and squeezing out between the end of the side rail and the foot of the bed, but it takes her long enough to do this and makes enough noise that I have plenty of time to intercept her, even if I’m asleep.
Somewhat surprisingly, Penny continues to have a good breakfast (or lunch if she wakes up later in the day) each day. I made pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on Sunday for a change of pace. Her go-to breakfast has been rice with two fried eggs. And often she has a popcicle or ice cream for “breakfast dessert”.
The rest of the day she eats less. Some snacks now and then, or a bit of lunch or supper. We are also cutting back on the IV fluids (frequency, volume, and rate) because she seems to be having more trouble tolerating hydration. The last two times we did the fluids, she got very cold, so it seems she is having some trouble regulating her temperture while the fluids are running. She’s also had some swelling in her feet. These are all things we were told to expect, and from here we’ll just let Penny decide how much or little hydration she would like on a given day.
Hoping for another peaceful night of sleep.