Mom Is Declining

After Nurse Shawn left last night, Mom seemed to be doing okay, though she still would not listen to Kai. About midnight Kai had to ask me for help again as Mom wanted to leave the bed to use the commode. He even tried my strategies to keep her in bed to no avail. She kept insisting she needed to pee but was not able to. So I dipped her fingers into a cup of warm water and it worked! Unfortunately at 2 am it did not work. I called Hospice Hawai'i again and this time Dionne was on duty; he lives in Ewa Beach so it took a while for him to get here. By 4 am he had inserted a Foley catheter and drained about 200 ml of urine from Mom's bladder. It looked kind of dark to me, like the color of black tea.


The catheter helped relieve the strain on Mom's bladder but she still kept trying to remove it. Kai told her it was for "one of the machines" so she had to leave it in place. She became more feeble so trying to get out of bed or remove the catheter soon was not a problem.

In the early morning I called Curtis to let him know what was going on. He and Lori came over after they saw their tax preparer. Aunty Judy also came to visit; she had come down with a cold on Friday so was going to wait until Monday to visit, but we decided under the circumstances it was okay to visit with Mom today.

Later in the day Jane came to visit along with her granddaughter DeeAnn. When we were cleaning up after Jane had left on Wednesday, we found the 2 props for her "You Are My Sunshine" skit that she did for Mom. It was the sign saying 'Special' and a pair of lips.


Mom is experiencing terminal agitation. For her it has taken the form of pulling at her t-shirt, the briefs, the oxygen line, and the catheter line. We have decided to give her the haloperidol and lorazepam on a regular schedule to keep the agitation to a minimum.

Both Shiro and Xander have been spending a lot of time on the bed with Mom. Occasionally both take a break and lie in other places. One of Xander's places is under the cabinet in Mom's bedroom. I think it makes him feel safe when there is a lot of activity going on in the room.


In the middle of all this I got a pleasant surprise: a gift box from "work"! It surprised Curtis, who just retired, that my former co-workers were sending me a gift box since I left over a year ago. I explained to him that I send the Kona coffee that the Environmental Services Section uses for the annual March Against Hunger competition that the Snohomish County Public Works Department participates in to raise money for the local food bank. So far this year Java Junction has raised over $500. People line up for the Kona coffee!

I'm pretty sure the Samoas and most of the Trader Joe's items are from Stephanie! I wonder if the pens are from Doug?

Happy Birthday to Vivian, Glenn, and Jose!