No More Morphine!

The Morphine pump is gone and Shayla took a liquid dose of Lortab at 5:00 p.m. That stuff tastes pretty nasty to her! She had to divide the dose into three protions and smother each with applesauce but she made it. The Lortab is for pain control, which hasn't been too bad today. She didn't use the Morphine at all when she had control of the pump.

She was feeling pretty energetic after the rinse of her mouth so we took a quick jaunt around the nurses' stations (the unit is a circle with a nurses' station at opposite sides of the circle). She held a pretty good pace, but she was pretty tired. Shayla's nurse reminded her to keep her eyes open while she was moving :-). Now that she had exercised a little, she is hungry, so we ordered in a cheesy quesadilla and 1/2 a PBJ sandwich. All these are good signs she is on the mend! Shayla hopes to go home by tomorrow afternoon. If she keeps up this progress, there wouldn't be a reason to keep her here!

Shayla is resting now. It was a night of many sleep interruptions: thirst, bathroom trips, bleeding from the mouth (not heavy, just enough to be tasted :-@) and nose, vital sign checks, etc.

Shayla asked the nurse this morning when she can go home. The reply was that Dr. Beck is hoping tomorrow. They are going to wean her off of the morphine pump today and see if she can handle oral pain meds (Lortab elixir, not a pill). Nurse Kelli asked Shayla if that was okay with her and she nodded "yes". At least now she has a goal. Shayla said this morning that her greatest discomfort is from the swelling inside her mouth. She will be starting some Tordal today to help with that.

Is sounds like today will be a busy day of getting Shayla up and moving around. That will be good, she needs to move so she is more steady on her feet and not so weak--it's surprising what a couple straight days in bed can do to one's physical strength!