THE DEATH WATCH-THIRTY-FIVE
Random Thoughts
12/5/2007 10:59 PM
It’s been an up and down two days. Yesterday I thought I was having some heart pain in the early evening, which turned out to be just a slightly rapid heartbeat. Tonight, at about the same time as yesterday, early evening, I felt very hot and my stomach was doing flips. It turned out to be the last throes of a diarrhea attack. I was just afraid that I would not be able to control it. Overall I have felt fatigued the past two days and this might be due to taking my pain meds every four hours. I tend to sleep easily while sitting in my chair. Since I haven’t needed to drive anywhere I’m keeping up with my pain meds and I certainly feel better in my legs and my arms. My jaw, however, doesn’t seem to be as receptive to the medication. The constant spitting is getting to be a real ordeal and even when I’m able to go for long stretches without the need to spit, it goes on all day. The quality of the spit varies from mostly liquid to real throat generated phlegm. When I get ready to sleep I don’t seem to have any problem having to spit often, unless I recline too steeply in my chair. I’m afraid to try to sleep in the bed because I would be disturbing Sue. I might try it on some night when she is working. My wake-up call is always the bladder alarm which occurs between 3:30AM and 4:00AM. It wouldn’t be too bad if I could go back to sleep after I void myself but the pain starts kicking in at that time too. I try to plan my early mornings around the 6:30AM time slot for my shower so if I take the pain meds at 5:00AM I can take them again at 9:00AM, 1:00PM, 5:00PM, 9:00PM and at bedtime, around midnight. I sometimes pass up the 5:00PM and take the pain meds at 8:00PM instead. When I have a hospital appointment, and don’t have to fast, I try to get my feeding done before Letha has to catch the bus. That means I start to feed myself around 5:00AM.
12/6/2007 10:33 PM
One thing I forgot to mention is that I feel cold all the time. If I get the room comfortable for myself, others in the room are burning up. I guess I overlooked the fact that with weight loss and the level of pain I am now experiencing, I also am having a problem maintaining my body temperature. Today was a very quiet day which I spent alone with the house temperature at a comfortable level. The actual temperature was such that I would have felt very hot under normal circumstances.
12/7/2007 3:23 AM
I had a problem getting to sleep last night so I may be taking a lot of naps today. I can’t put my finger on anything in particular but the amount of sleep I’ve been getting lately is less and less. I feel sleepy during the day but I don’t feel tired, if that makes sense. I’m trying to keep a record of every small detail of my life to see how this new medication has affected me. So far I haven’t seen any gross changes.
12/8/2007 2:18 AM
With all the little naps I seem to take during the day, I find myself wide awake at 2:00AM. I guess that after a little while, I will feel sleepy again and get back to sleep. This spitting business is starting to interfere with my sleep and I suppose that is a new development for me. I used to be able to sleep without a spitting problem, but know I seem to have to need to spit more often and even in the middle of the night. I’m also not too sure about this sleeping pill that I’m taking so I’ll ask the doctors about a possibly new pill. If I don’t feel better after this week-end, I will also ask about a stronger pain medication. The pain in my jaw does not seem to be affected by the pain meds that seem to work very well on the leg and arm joints. Having visitors and trying to talk a lot is very tiring and makes my spitting problem worse.
12/9/2007 3:54 AM
Some days I feel so weak that I have to talk myself into moving from one position to the next. Yesterday, Saturday, was one of those days. I was never able to catch up with my sleep from the night before and I felt very weak all day. I ate my three cans in the morning plus the required amount of water but I kept fading in and out of sleep all day but still felt tired. When I knew I had to get up to go to the bathroom I just sat there telling myself to get up but not moving. It was a very strange day. I feel better now but I still couldn’t sleep past 3:00AM. I forced myself to keep trying to sleep some more for the past hour. I will try again in a little while because it is too early to get up yet.
12/10/2007 5:49 AM
It was a rough night last night. I tried to go to bed early last night, 8:30PM, with disastrous results. I was wide awake at 2:00AM and I had to void my bladder, take some pain meds and another sleeping pill. I finally woke this morning at 5:30AM but not feeling well rested. I think it was a bad idea to try to go to bed early. I have to try to get a better sleeping pill.
12/5/2007 10:59 PM
It’s been an up and down two days. Yesterday I thought I was having some heart pain in the early evening, which turned out to be just a slightly rapid heartbeat. Tonight, at about the same time as yesterday, early evening, I felt very hot and my stomach was doing flips. It turned out to be the last throes of a diarrhea attack. I was just afraid that I would not be able to control it. Overall I have felt fatigued the past two days and this might be due to taking my pain meds every four hours. I tend to sleep easily while sitting in my chair. Since I haven’t needed to drive anywhere I’m keeping up with my pain meds and I certainly feel better in my legs and my arms. My jaw, however, doesn’t seem to be as receptive to the medication. The constant spitting is getting to be a real ordeal and even when I’m able to go for long stretches without the need to spit, it goes on all day. The quality of the spit varies from mostly liquid to real throat generated phlegm. When I get ready to sleep I don’t seem to have any problem having to spit often, unless I recline too steeply in my chair. I’m afraid to try to sleep in the bed because I would be disturbing Sue. I might try it on some night when she is working. My wake-up call is always the bladder alarm which occurs between 3:30AM and 4:00AM. It wouldn’t be too bad if I could go back to sleep after I void myself but the pain starts kicking in at that time too. I try to plan my early mornings around the 6:30AM time slot for my shower so if I take the pain meds at 5:00AM I can take them again at 9:00AM, 1:00PM, 5:00PM, 9:00PM and at bedtime, around midnight. I sometimes pass up the 5:00PM and take the pain meds at 8:00PM instead. When I have a hospital appointment, and don’t have to fast, I try to get my feeding done before Letha has to catch the bus. That means I start to feed myself around 5:00AM.
12/6/2007 10:33 PM
One thing I forgot to mention is that I feel cold all the time. If I get the room comfortable for myself, others in the room are burning up. I guess I overlooked the fact that with weight loss and the level of pain I am now experiencing, I also am having a problem maintaining my body temperature. Today was a very quiet day which I spent alone with the house temperature at a comfortable level. The actual temperature was such that I would have felt very hot under normal circumstances.
12/7/2007 3:23 AM
I had a problem getting to sleep last night so I may be taking a lot of naps today. I can’t put my finger on anything in particular but the amount of sleep I’ve been getting lately is less and less. I feel sleepy during the day but I don’t feel tired, if that makes sense. I’m trying to keep a record of every small detail of my life to see how this new medication has affected me. So far I haven’t seen any gross changes.
12/8/2007 2:18 AM
With all the little naps I seem to take during the day, I find myself wide awake at 2:00AM. I guess that after a little while, I will feel sleepy again and get back to sleep. This spitting business is starting to interfere with my sleep and I suppose that is a new development for me. I used to be able to sleep without a spitting problem, but know I seem to have to need to spit more often and even in the middle of the night. I’m also not too sure about this sleeping pill that I’m taking so I’ll ask the doctors about a possibly new pill. If I don’t feel better after this week-end, I will also ask about a stronger pain medication. The pain in my jaw does not seem to be affected by the pain meds that seem to work very well on the leg and arm joints. Having visitors and trying to talk a lot is very tiring and makes my spitting problem worse.
12/9/2007 3:54 AM
Some days I feel so weak that I have to talk myself into moving from one position to the next. Yesterday, Saturday, was one of those days. I was never able to catch up with my sleep from the night before and I felt very weak all day. I ate my three cans in the morning plus the required amount of water but I kept fading in and out of sleep all day but still felt tired. When I knew I had to get up to go to the bathroom I just sat there telling myself to get up but not moving. It was a very strange day. I feel better now but I still couldn’t sleep past 3:00AM. I forced myself to keep trying to sleep some more for the past hour. I will try again in a little while because it is too early to get up yet.
12/10/2007 5:49 AM
It was a rough night last night. I tried to go to bed early last night, 8:30PM, with disastrous results. I was wide awake at 2:00AM and I had to void my bladder, take some pain meds and another sleeping pill. I finally woke this morning at 5:30AM but not feeling well rested. I think it was a bad idea to try to go to bed early. I have to try to get a better sleeping pill.
posted by Michael at
5:59:00 AM
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