Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 March 2006 20:14:01
Tug of war between Macmillan Nurse and Doctor.
We half expected Dad to go into hospital today to try and sort out the sickness and test for anaemia and dehydration, but when the doctor came he was looking a fair bit better and managing to hold some liquids down so the decision was made that he should stay in bed tonight and see whether he was fit to go to day care at the hospice tomorrow.
It's decision time, actually. The doctor and district nurse want to fit dad with a syringe driver in his chest to administer a constant stream of anti-nausea drugs. The macmillan nurse feels we should hold off with this until they've ascertained that it isn't something easily treatable which is causing the sickness. All I know is that this constant nausea and retching and fear of eating and drinking is dragging dad down and significantly reducing his quality of life at the moment, and at a time when he was actually feeling a bit stronger too. Dad wants me to make the decision - not sure that I particularly want to! One good thing about a syringe driver is that it would mean the district nurse visiting him every morning while I was at school, just to check it was ok and to fill it with more drugs, so I would know he was having someone go round every morning. That in itself would be a real bonus. And it's fairly clear that sooner or later he's going to need to have his drugs administered by syringe. But does he want that any sooner than he needs it? Goodness only knows. I think I'll have to sleep on this one.
This is one of the occasions where it would be nice to have a significant other to hold me tight and help me not think about it for a while, and to be there to discuss it all with in the morning.
In other news, the driver motor on my windscreen wipers is burnt out. There goes another £200!