Night Shift

For the past two nights, Karen’s schedule hasn’t varied very much. They start with sleep, awakened by a nurse to “check” on her, sleep, awakened by an IV monitor that beeps very loudly, sleep, repeat beeping, nurse, sleep, wake up at 3:00 and stay awake for a while until she a) increases her level of Fenadryl b) gets Zofran or c) both of the above. This is followed by a brief conversation while holding hands. This treatment causes a deep sleep until early morning. Then we start with the nurse, sleep, beep, sleep routine. The drugs do the trick, not the dialogue.

Her strength continues to diminish which we were told to expect. She rests frequently to recuperate from the previous day’s chemo and night routine, and she also dozes in preparation for the next chemo treatment.

This morning she was introduced to her new nurse, Mindy, who does it by the book. She is very detailed and added an instrument that attaches to Karen’s finger and beeps every heartbeat. Darn, more beeping and more wires from Karen’s body. I offered to wear the silly thing for Karen and Mindy wasn’t amused. I bet Mindy’s glad I’m leaving tomorrow.

We started the last day of chemo later than normal - at 2:00. Rats, she'll be so tired when it ends.