Tuesday - Ultrace day

Some of you may remember that Harold wanted the doctors to give Dorothea Ultrace long ago... way back when she was at Olathe Medical Center. Her body does not produce some enzymes that are necessary for proper nutrition and digestion, and Ultrace takes the place of those missing enzymes. She has been taking Ultrace for years, and Harold has always insited that they needed to figure out a way to get some for her. It comes in a capsule, and they felt that the small "pieces" within the capsule were too large to go through the peg tube. He finally convinced the doctors to give it a try! Woo Hoo! She will be given 2 capsules worth of Ultrace every 4 hours. They have also started her on a protein supplement called Prostat, and they have increased her feeding to 40ml per hour. They decided that they did not want to give her the TPN IV feeding along with the tube feeding because they feel that it is too much fluid. All of these changes happened this morning, and so far she is tolerating everything. The Ultrace should help her to hang on to more nutrients, and should firm up her stools. Let's hope! She really needs her nutrition level to improve in order to have the energy she so badly needs.

She was on CPAP again this morning - starting at 5am. They took her off of it around noon today I think - and put her back on full support. She was not able to keep her numbers where they need to be. She was taking in small volumes and breathing too quickly. That seems to go hand-in-hand with her heart rate going up (because she is working too hard).

When I came in today I asked her how she was doing and she said "pretty good" - as she says most of the time. Today I told her that she didn't look like she was feeling pretty good, she looked pooped out. So then she said, "I feel awful". And I said - but you said you felt pretty good, which is it? She then said - I feel awful. I lie. We both got a chuckle. I was teasing her and telling her that she cannot lie to us... and then in walks the priest! LOL The timing was quite funny to both of us - he came in and prayed with her and forgave her of her sins... including lying! :) In all seriousness though, I think she just does not want to worry us, but I would rather she be truthful. We can only try to help her if we know how she is really feeling. She is still feeling pretty blue, and they are continuing to give her some happy medicine. Hopefully that will help.