Hospice is wonderful

Connecting with hospice is continuing to be every thing we hoped it would be.  Dave had another rough night even with giving him extra pain meds. Fortunately Kari was still here because the caregivers are limited in what they can without being delegated by the nurse.  We talked with hospice again in the morning and Anne, the nurse, arrived about 10.  She ended up staying until almost 6.  Anne called the hospice doctor who ended up staying almost 4 hours.  The initial effort was to relieve pain and the location of it.  With a morphine muddled brain the answers were not always prompt or accurate.  Finding the area of the worst pain was not hard.  Just a touch told that.  It was less than 2 weeks since the doctor had seen him and she could easily see that his belly was much more distended.  This could be caused by several things and was probably a combination of several things.  Because we know cancer had spread to the liver we could assume that was part of the problem.  Liver cancer pulls and holds water in it. Who knows if that is the entire problem. Very possible that the pancreas is getting into the action too.  Additionally he had not peed all day so that could be part of the problem.  It was decided that an ultrasound would help answer that question and after several phone calls arrangements were made for tomorrow morning.   Meanwhile Anne put in a catheter.  Strangely nothing came out.  After about an hour nothing had happened so it was taken out.  Anne wanted to talk with the doctor again and would get back to us.  Mean while the next shift nurse would be bringing a pump that would deliver drugs under the skin for a more consistent pain relief.  Because of the unsuccessful catheter the plan was to go to the hospital tonight and do the catheter, the methadone (sp?) pump and the ultrasound.  Hospice made arrangement for transport and but it was delayed.  Meanwhile we were checking on him..When they asked about his breathing and were told it was slowing his transit moved up in priority.  That meant the fire department came too.  So now Todd and Kari are with him at the hospital and I am doing my therapy.  They just called and the catheter and pain pump are done.  One more thing to do. I hope it does not take long because we are all sleep deprived.