3:30 am, Saturday January 28th. We just gave Alexandria morphine for the first time.
This morning (Friday morning) Alexandria began to get congested. As the day wore on her congestion became worse. We noticed yesterday that some of the boys had the startings of a runny nose. A cold is running through the house and she has it as well. Shortly after Lindsey left this afternoon it was clear she was having difficulty breathing. By midnight (4 hours ago) she was really having issues and crying a great deal. Around 12:30am I called Kim to come downstairs. Alex’s heart rate had pushed above 200, she was miserable, and it almost sounded like her lungs were full of water. I had Kim get my stethescope and listened to her lungs, they didn’t sound raspy, but it sure felt like the congestion had moved to her chest. We called hospice and waited for the call-back. Jessica is out of town, so we knew it would be Mary. Mary called us a few minutes later and by then Alexandria was in one of her calm moments and it was clear the congestion wasn’t in her lungs. I apologized to Mary for waking her up, saying it was a false alarm and that her lungs weren’t causing her pain like I’d thought. I told her everything that had happened all night. Mary let us know that using the morphine to calm her down and get her heart rate under control was appropriate and if she had another long episode to give her a dosage. Kim went back to bed and Alexandria and I went back to watching specials on the Bermudia Triangle on the history channel. For the next few hours she fussed here and there, nothing like long spells before, mostly tossing and turning. By 3am she began to have considerable trouble breathing, her crying was exasperating the situation, and I was using the nose sucker to take out a lot of mucus to try and help her breath. She is so small and seemed to be in so much pain.
I got angry. I just don’t understand this plan. I began to bargain. I began to ask for trades.
Her heart rate climbed into the 190s and I called Kim. I cleaned out her sinuses again and we gave her .1ml of morphine. She’s been calm and sleeping for 30 minutes now, first good sleep in hours. Her heart is back down to 125bpm and she’s breathing fine now.
Lifting you guys up! Begging the Good Lord to take away her congestion.
I’ve been told many times that a little morphine to reduce stress is a great idea, so maybe next time you won’t get so angry, just dose her so you both relax.
Thanks for the updates, and the honesty.
God bless
Dad
Here in Southern California, a.k.a Taxifornia, we are having very dry 20 to 50 mph winds with tons of pollen and my sinuses must be a reflection of Alex’s. I haven’t tried morphine, but my ENT doctor gave me something that must be morphine’s cousin. When I woke up almost a day later I was fine.
Alex is a real fighter, and with God’s will she will make it. It sounds like you and Kim need a lot of prayers too. Don’t worry you two are very prominent in our conversations with the Lord.