Hyper again, Ab pain, Itchy

Denise had a better night overnight than she did the night before. There was still ab pain on the left side, even going up under her ribs. The doctor pressed on her and thought that it was caused by the enlarged liver. Apparently the liver itself doesn't have pain receptors, but the surrounding tissues and organs do, and aren't happy with the crowding. It's interesting to note that upon comparing the recent CT scan with one done months ago at USC, the liver has not changed size. So I don't know why the pain... constipation form stopping the Reglan? Who knows?
She had a 300cc emesis. They're going to see if they can just give her tube feeding at night and start up a calorie count during the day to see what she's eating. We learned our lesson after the New Year's Eve discharge and will make sure that any emesis is recorded and subtracted from the intake nubmers.
Denise was calming down during the last couple of days, but was wired today. She got to go out to the bank with her caregiver & my mom for about 45 minutes. At night she wanted me to take her out again (about 8:30). She was ready to go to Robinson's-May and shop (get the going-out-of-business bargains). She also wanted me to take her to the pet store so she could buy Gracie a bird and Jacob a turtle. Great... more things to throw into the mix. I talked her out of that, but we thought perhaps a good compromise would be to buy a small bird & a couple of fish to donate to the aviary & aquarium in the nursing home's family room. Denise also came up with plans to demo the bedroom and redo it in a rainforest theme... painting trees on the walls, cutting in some custom-made skylights, putting in potted plants. Her being the artsy one and me being the geeky one, this is nothing new to either of us... she comes up with awesome plans, I argue time, dollars and physics, and we meet somewhere in the middle. And I've got to hand it to her, she always comes up with great ideas on a shoestring budget in the end. But tonight was a little over the top. There's a hotel in California called the Madonna Inn, and every room is decked out in an elaborate theme. I think she could go to work for them. She also phoned in a big, big, big, big, big, big, big Avon order to the person that gave her an Avon gift basket from a couple of weeks ago. The consultant called me because she thought Denise's order was a little excessive, considering the bills of this ordeal. Denise, big heart that she has, was ordering gifts for several people that work at the SNF, and had ordered something from almost every page in the catalog. Anyway, since we didn't get to go out at night, I'm arranging to take her out on Thursday for an hour & a half or so. I'd be stir-crazy if I were cooped up for so long, too.

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