The sniffles

Shannon had a day full of napping, followed by watching a video a few of her friends put together, then a bit of football. She especially enjoyed the video of her friends and their kids and pets who were determined to make their presence known. The "mommy is the best jungle gym" made me laugh too.

She isn't eating as much, she picks her favorite parts of the meal and ignores the rest. She even turned down apple pie (I ate it, she wasn't missing much). Her scoliosis isn't helping her comfort much, she shifts alot due to the back pain. I have to keep telling the staff her pain levels:

1-3 - "I'm Okay"

4-9 - "I'm Fine"

10 - *goes cross-eyed and hisses*

Other than that she was snotty today from allergies. Apparently there is no escaping them in Texas. Not even the cold weather, cold being relative of course.

Meds meds and more meds

Shannon continues to do alright. Not much changing. She continues to confound the staff, working her bedpan out when they were convinced that couldn't happen, trying to stand to go to the bathroom when she cannot even sit up.

They cut back on some of the worst sedative drugs, she was able to stay awake most of today and enjoyed a call from her uncle yesterday. 

I am noticing more paralysis in the right side of her face, she mumbles a lot more and is harder to understand. She's still having the petite seizures, she's had those for over a year now so that's nothing new. 

Her memory and comprehension are still good when she's fully awake, but her ability to express herself gets worse. The tumors progression seems determined to make her miserable. Still, we watched some TV today and she laughed at some of the jokes.

Not homeward bound

    Shannon is doing well. Almost too well. Though she hasn't regained any ability to walk, talk, or body function. She can eat, sleep, and survive without being hooked up to a machine. That's apparently the line she's stuck on, the hospice facility she wants to stay at wants to discharge her possibly Monday, since she's not actively dying fast enough for them. She doesn't want to go home so I'll figure something out.

    She's sleeping most the day due to her medication. She sleeps so hard it's difficult to get her to wake. That's what counts as treating her seizures successfully, putting her in a half coma. We had friends drop by today, dropping off cookies. Was good for her to see someone besides me and doctors, and she actually remembered them later too, which is big. It helps they brought their cute kids along.

Some flowers from my aunt's arrived too, she likes the hydrangeas.

   Tomorrow we'll be bringing her Thanksgiving and watching the game. We'll be rooting on the Cowboys, but mostly because they're not taking on the Broncos or Seahawks.

Hospice hospitality

Shannon has made it to a hospice facility. It's something between a hospital and a hotel in feel. 

I was worried Shannon would be lingering for a long time, but today she got a bit worse. She can still speak, eat, and move her left arm and leg, but she's having shortness of breath at times. She's miserable right now, I can only hope she feels a bit more comfortable as she settles a bit. 

The staff is not as highly trained, but they're also not nurses, just caretakers. 

The new medication makes Shannon groggy, which doesn't help her communicate at all. Hopefully it will help her sleep better.

Time

Shannon decided today, and I doubled checked with her a few times, that she will not be persuing any further treatments for her tumors. The best that any doctor has offered is an extension of her current condition, which is not what she wants. She's at peace with her decision, as am I. 

She doesn't want to go home, stubbornness I think, so we're finding a facility she can stay at and receive the care she wants. 

All that being said, brain tumors are unpredictable, she may remain in her current state for months, she may get completely non-communicative, she may pass before I finish this blog. Though she's stubborn enough to make that not happen I think.

That's all for now, I'll be updating this when there's something new to report.

Back to the hospital

Hi all, Rock here -

      Shannon is back in the hospital from complications with her brain tumor. Over the last three weeks she's been having more and more issue. Her right side first wasn't responding then was completely numb. She stubbornly refused help the whole time. Last week we found out from another MRI the mass has increased and is also having other growths showing across the other side of the brain. We started steroids but they had little impact. 

      Over the weekend she got progressively worse, we were trying to get on a chemo but Tuesday I found Shannon hunched over on the ground where she could no longer get back up. Called an ambulance and got her to the hospital, a new one so they have a million questions we've answered a million times other places. Tuesday she was borderline unable to understand or communicate better than yes or no's. 

      She currently is a little better. She can feed herself with her left hand but her whole right side is still useless for her. She cannot stand and is exhausted rolling over. She can feed herself as long as it only needs one hand. If she's a bit better tomorrow we may try utinsels.

      We are waiting results for an EKG. They want to see her siezures, and even though one saw it in person they want the test. Unfortunately they didn't get the alarm set correctly so the first two didn't get recorded, and since they fixed it she's been fine.

     Shannon is tired, both physically and emotionally. Not being able to speak, read or write was difficult enough. Now not being able to take care of herself at all has her really down. She doesn't have a lot of hope that any treatments can be done to help her recover, and there's not a lot of options left. We are in the process of figuring out if she can or wants to go home, or if she needs to go to a care facility.

     I'm doing fine, so quit asking. I know you all want to do something, but there's not much to be done right now. She cannot speak or read but if you wish to leave a message I'll see that she gets it.