She seems to be building up a tolerance to the morphine. Well, technically it's a derivative of morphine, hydromorphone. It doesn't seem to last very long anymore. One of the doctors mentioned stopping the NG vacuum for an hour or so to give her oral ibuprofen, aka Advil. They said they can't give it intravenously, but I don't understand that.
While they still encourage walking, we don't go nearly as much as before they put in the NG tube. We have to have someone unhook the tube from the wall, close the end that comes out of her, and then secure the tube to the gown. And then reverse that to reconnect. Not to mention, despite being secured to her gown, the hose wiggles when walking and it irritates her nose and throat. Throw the sleep and pain issues into the mix, and it's hard to get motivated.
Last night, after two weeks of no solid food, and an on and off again - but mostly off - liquid diet, they decided to give her total parenteral nutrition, i.e. nutrients via IV. I'm not sure why they were resistant to the idea before, but I'm sure they had their reasons. Hopefully it's not much longer till she can eat again.
