Thanksgiving eve update

Happy Turkey Day everyone,

Hopefully by now most of you are very close to consume your freshly carved dinner.

Tim, Maria, Brendan and Whitney stopped by earlier on their way to TJ's house. They are there as I am writing this hopefully enjoying themselves.

Sophie was kind enough enough to come back very early this morning to keep ToRi and I company. She took a detour via the grocery store to buy breakfast and the newspaper (Sales ads). There was no point in both Sophie and I staying up here last night so she went back to sleep in our bed. Or sleep period I should say.

Tori and I didn't really find that in our portfolio of activities last night. According to Tori's nurse Jessica, she was already pretty agitated at 3pm when she started her shift. Basically, between that time and 9am this morning she didn't really rest.

After her 10pm medications, Sophie was still here to witness how restless Tori was. We still decided it was wiser for one of us to go home and get some sleep. It was a great idea since I was able to 'snooze' a little bit with Tori this early afternoon while Sophie was watching after us.

I figured I was going to keep these to myself but there is no reason not to share them (expect for the fact that I am not going to review them and send them as is). For some reason, I felt compelled to document my night with Tori so that I could remember how it was like (maybe others can also understand the troubles she is still fighting with)...

1am -- Tori has still not really slept tonight

She is showing signs of anxiety. For some reason, she would not keep her eyes closed for more than 60 seconds. I wonder what her valproic acid level is because she is shaking quite a bit and I saw her eyes 'wobble' twice. She would randomly start crying and whether you stand by her, stay way, talk to her, hold her and or caress her head or back, there is nothing to calm her down. Placed the oximeter probe on her right foot using my clean sock because the hand simply doesn't work today.

1:15am -- She is also posterizing quite a bit - there is no position in which her arms seem comfortable to her. Rang the bell, we sucked out from her stomach and tried to calm her down with the nurse, 2 aids and the respiratory technician (5 of us watching over her).

1:30am -- Decided to call Tim. We could not get Tori to settle down so decided to call. Based on Nichole suggestion, we wanted to try a full dose of Dilaudin and a dose of nausea control medicine. Tin was ok with that. She was shaking a lot and they could not take her heart rate or blood pressure reliably. Hopefully this will do the trick or I will have to call Tim again at 2:30am.

2am -- Tori might be showing some signs of calming down. Per Jay's suggestion - we started 'Cinderella Story' again for her. She is kind of watching and settling down (hopefully).

2:30am -- we are just shy of the half hour and Tori is still not sleeping. Despite sleeping quite a bit yesterday - I am totally beat right now. Seeing her like that for the last 8 hours is just really difficult. Somewhat I was preparing myself for that; somehow I knew she wasn't going to be feeling well tonight.

We are going to try to both go to sleep. I am going to lay down and see if that motivates her to go to bed as well.

2:35 - 2:45 -- Tori is sleeping. HR is still around 126 but she is sleeping.

2:45am -- Nichole came in to unplug her tube and put the feeds back on. Tori didn’t really wake up this time.

4:50am -- Tori slept all the way from 2:45am until now. She did wake up crying for a few seconds and so I pushed the help button wanting for them to come in and help change/reposition her.

5:15am -- They are done with her and of course she is a little agitated. Hopefully she will settle down pretty soon. She sure cries a lot louder than used to. HR is averaging 141.

5:30am -- She is settling down. Hopefully will fall asleep for a while again.

5:45am -- She is agitated again, she probably slept a little over the last 15 minutes but now again she is not feeling good. Rang the bell for help and Jay concurs that she is having a 'particularly rough night'.

6:05am -- She is not able to get back to sleep on her own. Nichole is giving her a Valium to hopefully help her through the next few hours. Turned a movie back on until the Valium kicks in.

7:10am -- Tori slept again for an hour (HR 120) before Nichole came in to unplug her tube. That again woke her up and she is crying. Her heart rate is not as high this time HR 128 so I hope she can go back to sleep quicker this time.

7:10am - 9:00am -- Tori continued to sleep on and off. I, she, we were able to calm down quicker and more easily a few times during that time.

9:00am -- We are up and kicking. They are getting ready to change her dressings and her tube connector leaked so they are going to change her again. Sophie just got here.

This was what I wrote during the night. Tori slept a little bit this morning. She didn’t wake up for OT at 9:30am or PT at 10:30. Stacey came back at noon and there she was more willing to participate a little bit. Tori and I both slept a little bit after Maria left.

It’s now 3:43pm and she is napping some more.

Again, happy Thanksgiving to you all,
-Guy