The sweet smell of success....

I am happy to report that my medical research project is coming along a little better today than yesterday. Today was a much calmer and pleasant day. Papa kept apologizing for yesterday, as if it were his fault. He realized that something was not right but could not seem to alter his behavior. We began giving him 1cc of Methadone every four hours this morning at 8:00 and continued at four hour intervals until I put him to bed at 8:00 PM. At midnight we plan to give him a little bigger dose and see where it takes us. I am hoping that he will sleep through the night. He was just about back to "normal" today.

Some of you had questioned why we were giving him Methadone. I will digress and give a little of our "narcotic" history. As many of you may remember, Kenny fell and fractured five ribs on December 21, a little over 24 hours after his release from the hospital after a week of bladder and kidney procedures. As a result of that extremely painful injury, he ended up on Oxycontin for the pain - one of reasons being that it could be given just twice a day. It worked beautifully for about 10 days and then he developed an opiate toxicity to the drug, so the docs decided to try Oxyfast which is a liquid Oxycodone. He still had some of the same symptoms so I decided to put him on Rapid Release Extra Strength Tylenol during the day and only use the narcotic at night. After another two days, I went to only the Tylenol and it worked very well. After this last hospital stay, during which many different pain relievers were tried, the Methadone was the best one for relief of pain and with the fewest side effects. When we came home, I used the Methadone only when he was in severe pain. The rest of the time we kept him on the Tylenol.
We went to the Methadone entirely last week when nothing else would touch the back and knee pain that he was experiencing. We have learned that all of these narcotics really wreak havoc on the elderly and their state of mind. We have spoken jokingly of our "drug" adventures with Kenny, but it has become more than just a few mental mistakes but rather, delusional episodes that are difficult for us to play along with, not knowing where he is coming from. He then gets upset with us because he realizes that we are clueless. Today he was well aware that yesterday he was "in left field" most of the day and that disturbed him. I am so hopeful that we will finally be able to keep him on an even keel for a while. But I did say last week that usually it is three steps forward and one or two steps back, so I may be expecting too much of him and of myself. This is definitely uncharted territory for us. Even with just 1cc of Methadone, Kenny has trouble expressing himself sometimes. His mind wanders and it frustrates him immensely when he cannot organize his thoughts well enough to get his points across. His body may be ancient but his mind is not and it is so hard for him when it acts like it's old.

Tonight at supper, he began to have discomfort in his gut immediately after eating. The discomfort was so acute that he simply stopped eating and drinking. This is similar to the episodes he was having that led to the discovery of the bladder cancer. The right kidney was so enlarged that it was impeding the eating process because it was pressing against the stomach, I think. Anyway, it was causing a similar kind of pain to the one he experienced tonight. Please pray that this is not the same thing. We really do not want to have to hospitalize him again. As his physician says, "People get sicker in the hospital." And we can do without that. I have to admit that after being a Pollyanna all of my life, I am beginning to change, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. (Or have I been influenced by the soaps that I do not watch? Usually a simple cough turns into pneumonia for the character in the show.)

I cannot tell you all how much we appreciate all of your input. If you prefer to email Larry or me you may do so rather than commenting on the blogspot. We are so grateful for your friendship and for your love and concern for Kenny. He has loved the cards. Keep them coming. God bless you all.