Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #40 – Family is Here Now

                                                                                      

Friday, May 22^nd, 2020…… Randy started his drive up this morning. Lydia is comfortable in her bed. Hospice brought her a nebulizer to help her breathing and lorazepam for anxiety and olanzapine for nausea. She can get morphine, squirted under her tongue, to help her relax. The nebulizer has been used every four hours and so far, she has had two morphine treatments and one lorazepam. Her breathing is very calm and she says she is comfortable. She has been watching tv and sleeping, kind of back and forth. If you know her, she nods off quite often! But, toward the evening, she started sleeping a lot and had less movements. I know the meds are working and helping. I had called Teri, who cuts our hair, and asked to get in for a haircut. She was sad to hear about Lydia and would like to see her if possible. I said Lydia would very much like to see her so she came during her lunch break and they visited for a bit. Lydia isn’t really talking much now but it was kind of nice to at least have someone to talk to her. Randy will be staying the night in Medford and will make the last drive tomorrow morning.

Saturday, May 23^rd, 2020……  Randy got here around 11:00am this morning. He spent some quality time with his Mom, which they both needed. They had previously sent up a mother's day delivery (flowers and candles) and I left them for him to give to her. Later, Penny, Randy and I, with Frances on the phone coaching us, did a lavage on both of Lydia’s ears. She gets a waxy buildup and, from time to time, needs this done, usually by Frances. Since she wasn’t here yet, we decided to do it with her phone guidance. With the syringe squirter and the bowls and the towels it probably was a sight to see!  I wish we had taken a video. It was so hilarious! But we did ok and she says that helped a lot.

Later in the evening, I headed up to PDX to get Jeff. His flight came in at 9:30pm. Meanwhile, Randy set up the new Mary Poppins movie and settled in on our bed to watch it with mom. She really has no energy and drifted off to sleep. Jeff and I stopped on the way home to get him something to eat and we got there about 11:30. But things are moving pretty quickly now. She is now barely able to move and responds only with her eyes and she nods instead of speaking. She hasn’t had any food and barely sips her water. Jeff stayed with her for a while and then headed off to bed, since his system clock is three hours ahead of us. I was tired and settled in and slept pretty well for a few hours but was up and roaming the house by 3:00am. Nights are the hardest for me. But at least her boys are here now.   

Sunday, May 24^th, 2020……  No change this morning. No medication has been required since she is out pretty much of the time. I am always watching her breathing for respiratory issues – she is breathing smoothly and comfortably with big breaths every so often. I fixed scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese for breakfast and Penny came over and joined us. She brought Quincy over and left her to head up to PDX to get Frances, who changed her flight to get here asap. I told the boys I wanted to pick up the grass later today but Jeff was ready now and went out and started up the mower and hooked up the catcher and off he went. That left Randy and I to bag the grass and try to keep up. We three made quick work of it and then we came in and cleaned up and then settled in for the day and visited and watched tv and worked on a few other projects around the house. The girls got back and Lydia acknowledged that Frances was here. At this point, she isn’t moving at all, just sleeping all the time. Breathing is good and relaxed. Jeff brought in his Mother's Day gifts that he had brought with him. Frances and I had a little talk and she clued me in on what to expect to see in the next phase. With no food and water, she will slowly drift off, but her breathing will be shallow and rapid. I think we are all expecting it sooner than later. But right now, she’s still resting comfortably. I tried to move her head to a new position but she let me know she didn’t want that!  Still feisty! Penny went and got KFC for dinner. Jeff had taken a ride to get out for a while and came back with tortillas, refried beans and carne asada to bbq for tacos tomorrow night.