Final Post of the Day: High dose steroids working a little

Mom and I spent the better part of the afternoon outside. She chatted with a few folks while I did some work and talked to the team back on the West Coast. She rolled in the scooter and I walked around pretty much half of the Saint Mary's campus, stopping to see the Peace Garden (again, quite peaceful), and taking the back way into the hospital. Felt good to get out and walk in the fresh air.

Dad was a bit more alert this afternoon (probably thanks to the monster dose of steroids he is now on), but still not great. You can tell he's far from normal when he didn't ask for the cell phone ONCE all day. That's as much of a symptom as anything. He just wasn't up to it, or didn't think about it, or both. Definite red flag for us when he doesn't ask for the cell phone at least once every 15 minutes.

We chatted with the neurology team that evaluated him several times today, and they said that the EEG done this morning did not indicate seizures that we witnessed were still going on. However, they do think it was seizures he was having caused by the increased swelling in his brain from the surgery. No changes to his medications as he's already on two seizure medications and his levels were okay. There weren't any more seizures today, so maybe the combination of the steroids and the swelling going down post-op helped out there.

So many things factor in to why he was the way he was today: interrupted sleep patterns, new medications (pain meds, anesthesia), swelling from surgery, swelling from the radiation necrosis. . .so while several things were changed/monitored today, it's hard to say what one thing woke him up a bit and made him a bit more responsive (and grouchy).

I did laugh this afternoon, probably inappropriately, at something Dad said. Mom and I were trying to straighten him out a bit - he often leans too far to the left and then doesn't have the strength to straighten up on his own. Well, being hypersensitive to pain right now, when I tried to tuck a pillow under his left side to prop him up a bit, he said, "Somebody's getting fired today." I told him right back, "I don't work here. You can't fire me," and continued to push the pillow under him.

Mom and I are in for the night. Both of us are pretty tired, and have another big day tomorrow (or at least morning). I'm back to trying to work a bit more consistently this week. Of course today wasn't as successful as I'd planned last night, but getting back into the groove on a few of my projects really is a nice distraction.

More tomorrow morning after rounds.