Joe tends to sleep pretty well overnight with the breathing device, but he is taking more medicine at night to help with anxiety and to relax his breathing. With just the cannula (oxygen tube in his nose), his breathing is strained and he uses his upper shoulders. His voice is more breathy. With the bi-pap device, his breathing is assisted and comes from the abdomen and diaphragm, which is the way Joe should be breathing. It's more productive and allows for the removal of the carbon dioxide in his lungs. His voice is much stronger after he awakens from using the bi-pap. Breakfast continues to be Joe's biggest meal of the day. Lunch and dinner portion sizes are still pretty light.
Our 2nd day shifter volunteer, Tom aka T-Bird (Joe's cousin), did a great job helping with Joe's care. He even brought a crock pot and made cottage ham, green beans and potatoes for our dinner.
Joe got a visit in the morning from Kathy, the hospice massage therapist, which he very much enjoyed. Father Westerhoff came by late morning after mass and brought everyone lunch from LaRosa's. He gave Joe communion and used the holy water we have from Lourdes. Steve (Elder Class of '79) stopped by to visit Joe, and Nancy (a friend of Joe's sister, Jane) stopped by and brought banana muffins. Our friend, Pat, picked up Dan from school again for us....thank you!
In the evening, we had a whole bunch of people visit Joe including Scott (Elder Class of '79) and his wife, Debbie (who brought a dinner), Dave (Elder Class of '79 and our "best man"), his wife, Kathy, and their daughter, Lexi, and our friends Susie and her daughter, Missy, and Joe's sister Jane, and her daughter (our niece) Stephanie. It was a gorgeous day here and it reached 80 degrees. So, we decided to get Joe outside to enjoy the weather. It was an entire group effort to get Joe in the patient lifter out of bed and into the electric wheelchair, and then move the oxygen machine out on the front porch (with a really long extension cord) and use the extra long oxygen tubing to enable him to travel down the new ramp and out on the sidewalk to the driveway. See the group shot of everyone above.
Joe asked that I take pictures of everyone who visits from now on so I can post those on the blog.
It sounds like a broken record, but we want to continue thanking everyone daily for all the love and support you have shown our family. People are constantly asking me "what can I do to help you?". We are so blessed to have such a wonderful support system. We are so grateful!
No comments:
Post a Comment