Monday, February 22, 2010

I wanna be sedated

BR's been under hospice care for a bit over a month now, with the primary goal of getting his pain under control. They took him off the Fentanyl patches and percocet, and put him on Methadone and liquid morphine. Initial indicators were good. The pain immediately changed to something more tolerable, but still painful -- 4-6 instead of 7-8 on the pain scale. Since then, they have been gradually increasing the methadone, and he's now consistently a 4-5. With the last increase, though, sedation has started to rear its ugly head. He slept for a large part of the day yesterday. We'll have to wait and see where this new dosage settles, but there's a good chance we won't be able to increase again without compromising his ability to take his other oral medications on schedule.

When he is awake, though, he's in a much better frame of mind. And for that, I'm thankful.

6 comments:

awb said...

I wasn't aware Methadone had any use, past managing addiction. Feel bad that I've whined the past few weeks with a little back pain.

andy

Have Myelin? said...

I am catching up on your blog. Like awb said I was not aware methadone had other uses.

Take care.

Herrad said...

Hi Steve,
Hope you and BR are doing ok.
Thinking about you.
Big hugs.
Love,
Herrad

Unknown said...

I suspect you are BOTH thankful for the moments.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick

kmilyun said...

Ya still there?

Herrad said...

Hi Steve,
Hope you are both doing ok.
Came by to say hello, hope the new week will be pleasant for you.
Love,
Herrad