Contradictory Information...

It's been another long day.... for different reasons than I wrote about yesterday.

Dave and I are trying to make sure that someone is here 24 hours a day... It makes for some very long days and eventually, I don't think it is possible for the two of us to do this alone. Ugh!

We met with Dr. Boente at 12:30 today. Mom was awake when he was here, although she wasn't always sure what was going on.

Dr. Boente said that Dr. Savage was wrong about her x-ray. While mom does have constricted bowels from the many, many tumors - some as small as the size of a pin head, and layered deep upon each other. He told us that the type of cancer that she has is Platinum-Refractory Ovarian Cancer, one of the most complicated and aggressive types of ovarian cancer. He said that research has shown that a surgery on her bowels will likely not solve the problem. He said that he beleives that the intestines are not completely blocked - hence the term constricted, and therefore, we might see some improvement after having had the NG (Nasal Gastro-something or other) in for the last two days.

I told him that I was concerned that it appeared that she was doing worse since the tube had been put in and the Ativan had been increased. I asked if we could try decreasing the Ativan, at least during the day, to see if she might be a bit more aware of what is going on around her. He also said that if she could get some movement in her bowels, that we might be able to take the tube out in the next few days.

And so, they clamped the tube at 2:45 today. She went until 6:00 pm without it. She did feel slightly nauseaus, but not as bad as other days without the tube. We turned it on again for about 25 minutes when she was feeling sick, but then turned it back off again at 6:25. Its been off ever since and it is now 12:30 am.

We also cut back on the Ativan, going down to .5 mg from her normal 1.0 mg. She is still getting her Dilaudid every 2-3 hours, but she has been relatively comfortable most of the day and evening. She was even awake while Margaret visited tonight and watched Dancing with the Stars. She didn't always make sense when she was talking (mom, not Margaret), but it was really great to have her awake for so long.

She seems to think that the tube in her nose is a chemo treatment and that it should be time for it to come out. She really does hate the tube. If I were her, I'd want it out too.

And so, the plan has changed again. And we are just taking it one day at time, with the priority being 1) keeping her comfortable and 2) getting her strength back.

Dave just got here for our shift change, so I am heading out the door. I'll update more later.

Note to self: update blog about DNR/DNI order mess up over weekend.