I'm happy to report that the medical cannabis is working. She has reduced nausea and increased appetite. She has eaten a bit late this afternoon and been drinking some water and tea. Side effects? Loopy as hell! Much more alert but jumpy. Says random things. Compulsive organizing behavior. A worthwhile trade-off? I think so. At one point 3-4 of us were hovering and encouraging her to eat and drink and she looked up and said, "what is this, an intervention?". Pretty funny. I do think we have some work to do on getting the right dose. She joined a medical cannabis co-op today and we will be getting some different products to try, and different doses. So a bit of experimenting - but what the heck.
Dr Kaplan also upped her dose of steroids so that should help nausea and appetite.
I also got a visit from pre-hospice services, a nurse and a coordinator. They were great. Will help me access services and navigate the system. I did learn one important thing, which is a bit disconcerting. Hospice will not get involved unless the patient is off all treatment, because of how they get paid by the heath insurance company. Her upcoming brain radiation - if she can do it - is treatment, palliative and not curative, but still treatment. So while she is in treatment I can't get hospice support. So I'll have to figure out how to manage the meds and nausea with Dr Kaplan and the pre-hospice team.
The goal is to get through the weekend with her relatively stable and "comfy". And then Monday see if we can make the move to get cleaned up, dressed and off to treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment