Hospice??

Well, Marshall talked to his sister Friday night and told her he was going into hospice.  So maybe it's time to talk to the hospice people.  Marshall has been pretty unresponsive since Saturday morning.  He has also been mildly hallucinating.  And his upper body is warm and his lower body is absolutely freezing.

This morning his right eye was closed and his left eye was open and he was making guttural sounds.  Gina and I were wondering if he could have had a mini-stroke because an hour or so later he looked fine again.

And I have to confess something -- I've been giving him his medications just like always and didn't give any thought to his diabetes insulin.  I gave him an insulin shot last night (and the night before) without thinking that since he hasn't been eating, his sugar wouldn't be high.  So what I was doing, in effect, was lowering his blood sugar to comatose level.  Good grief, it is a wonder he has lived through having me as a caregiver.

So we talked to the palliative nurse and she said I should test his sugar.  We did that and his sugar was at 27, which is dangerously low.  So Nurse Kathy said to immediately give him some orange juice and then after that a glass of milk.  That brought his sugar up to an acceptable level.  And she told me how to handle it from here on out.

Today he has been quite agitated -- wanting to get up and then immediately wanting to lay back down.  This morning he managed to get to the living room and sit down, but immediately wanted to come back to bed.  He even had a few short conversations.  But as the day progressed, he was not able to talk to us at all.  If I said "I love you," he mouthed it back to me but he didn't speak the words.  Could all this be related to diabetes and sugar levels?

Tanya called and I handed him the phone and told him Tanya was on the line and he took the phone and then just let it drop.  I handed it to him again and he did the same thing.  I put Tanya on speakerphone and he was very intrigued by it but did not respond.  Now he is sleeping but he is breathingVERY fast.  I'll be sleeping in the bed next to him tonight and Gina will be here early tomorrow.

When people call, I take their number and put it on a list.  If he improves to the point where he wants to talk to people, we will start calling everyone back.

That's it for today.