Latenight Blogging

Fell asleep on the sofa, so I haven't blogged. Sharon woke me up about 11:25 to take the evening cocktail of painkillers. Now wide awake watching tele and blogging.

District nurse came this morning she is happy with everything. She will leave it until next week to come again unless we call them for something.

Brian had been to see Andrew at Enstone, so he called in. We spent an hour or so going through my scriblings so far for the Auto Biography. Must type some more up.

I have managed to eat a slice of fruit toast, some pommebear crisps and some cheese. Not the worlds most nutritional food, but it's in and it's stayed in. My digestive system has been very loud with rumbles and groaning.
Mike came to see me after he had finished work at Vision. Really nice to see him. He had bought his laptop with video of his rally car out in south wales. It's a beast when you consider it is home built as a cheap fun car.

Fiona turned up whilst he was here, so for a while the talk was just high level chat. I need a more in depth discussion with Fiona about funerals. Let's hope she has time to pop back.

Falling asleep on the sofa has upset my body clock. Guess I will be awake for a while.
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Health professionals today.

Macmillan nurse and an occupational therapist today.

Spent last night downstairs on the recliner, went to sleep watching Tokyo Drift, managed to wake up and switch it off though. Slept from 12:15 through to 6:15 and then dozed for a couple of hours. Got up about 8:45 and dragged myself up the stairs. It was hard work, my lungs were really struggling.
Glynis(who used to work at John Matchetts) came round about 10:15, great to catch up with her.

After she had gone Mandi, the Macmillan nurse came in to see me. I had told her I wanted some straight answers and I got them. It is highly unlikely that I will get any better, the oxygen, blood clots and wobbly leg are here to stay and will get worse. We have reviewed all my pain killers and discussed the side effects of morephine. As a result she has got the GP to prescribe an alternative to morephine, oxycontin that will have the same pain killing effects without the side effects. Let's hope it works.

This afternoon the Occupational Therapist came in to offer loads of aids. We are having a riser for the toilet, a hand rail by the shower, a step to get to the bath, a seat in the shower nad a walking stick. I have asked for a basic un-tuned one I can then tune and customise myself.
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Went to bed and ......................

I started off in bed last night, built a mound of pillows to get the same angle as the recliner chair and it all seemed good.  But within half an hour it had all fallen apart and I was uncomfortable, I re-arranged but couldn't get it right and about 1:45am I gave up and Sharon helped me move to the recliner where I got a good 6 hours sleep.

Got up and just about managed to get upstairs for a shower.  My GP rang just before I got in and asked if it was OK to pop round , she arrived just as I was drying myself.  She has put me on some anti-biotics just in  case I have a chest infection, upped the dose of Gavapentin pain killer alongside the slow release morphine, she was a little concerned about my hallucinations and doesn't want to increase the morphine.  I have to say, I have felt less pain today, felt more tired and been a bit queezy.

The GP left and I got dressed and sorted and went downstairs.  Rob turned up, great to see him, he wants to help, and I am sure we will find things he can help with.  Had a good long chat with Rob and he 'looked after' me whilst Sharon walked Lucky and made several phone calls.  He also coped with me throwing up, well beyond the duty of friendship.  So there you go Rob, you have already helped.

Karen and Kevin turned up just as Rob was leaving, I was getting tired by this point and I am sure I wasn't the best of company for Kevin whilst Karen and Sharon went to the post office and Sainsbury's.  Kept going all afternoon with a couple of dips.  Then Rebecca turned up as well, but I kept going.  Great to see Rebecca, her caring personality always lifts me.

So it has been a busy day, as well as all the visitors an over bed table and air mattress were delivered and loads of other things have been achieved, well done team.  I was worn out and dropped into a morphine induced snooze late afternoon.  Couple of weird points where I had a conversation about non-existent loaves of bread, but that's morephine.

Lauren and Ian have just called round to check we are alright :-) which we are.  Think I am going to sleep on the recliner tonight.

Never had such a good bad day

Had some more great visitors today and went out in Ian's car.

We had said on Friday that we should make the time to do. It hurt all the way, but we were out abut half an hour so I can do reasonable runs out.

Not sure where to sleep tonight. I tried to go to bed but couldn't get to sleep and ended up On the recliner in the front room. Physio and Doctor told me not to sleep in chairs, but if that's where I am comfortable, that's where I am sleeping.

Thanks Frances, Chris, Jude, Bella and Sam great to see you and sorry Simon but we were tired, we don't normally both fall asleep on the sofa when you call in.

Nearly time for bed. I wonder where bed will be????
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Bad night, but great day.

I struggled through the night, the tumour was grinding on my bones and I think I may have lost some of the background pain killer when I threw up. Anyway I did get a few hours sleep here and there in between thrashing about in pain. Unfortunately I kept Sharon awake as she was worried about me and is in charge of dispensing my morphine.

Today we have changed to the slow releases morphine which are 10mg and mean I am on morphine all the time and if that doesn't overcome the pain I can top up on oramorph. Going to start the stronger laxatives tonight as the current ones aren't working.

We were both up reasonably early but I couldn't move much until Sharon reminded me I was expecting visitors. Lucky, the world's coolest dog, has come to stay and Graham and Pat were making the trip from Stoke to see me.

Lucky turned up about 10:15, I was still in bed, but up by the time Graham and Pat arrived around 11:00. We had a pleasant time chatting, eating a light lunch and drinking coffee. Lucky enjoyed laying on the floor cushion snoring.

The day was topped off with a visit from Andy, who was on his way home from Vision and bought chocolate. There will only be a couple in the box I fancy, but I am sure there will be plenty of help with the rest.

Hope tonight is better.
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Not much to report

Fairly sleepy day. Had a shower, went back to bed, got up before lunch. Lauren has re-arranged her work hours so she can be free Friday afternoons. So she came round to keep an eye on me whilst Sharon popped into town to sort out bank accounts and do some odds and ends. She is such a good girl.

We finally got confirmation from the hospital that I didn't need to go to an appointment at 4:00 today, they would call me instead. Dr Pratap rang about 7:15. I reported all my new symptoms and changes but she made little comment. She has discussed me with the doctor at the hospice and there may be a radio therapy option that could offer some pain relief. I showed great disinterest and even less when she said it has about a 25% success rate. I don't think it is an option we will be pursuing. We have left it that she won't be seeing me in clinic unless I ring and make an appointment.

So, it looks like I am in the care of my GP, my Macmillan nurse and the hospice.
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New post on the auto biography

http://gwautobiography.blogspot.co.uk/