Is it Friday yet?.... YES!

Yesterday (Thursday) Kaitlyn seemed really uncomfortable and agitated. We gave her some morphine but it did very little. She has also had a  low-grade fever, around 100 degrees for a number of days off and on. Overnight, her breathing sounded really labored and hoarse. She slept okay but it was pretty concerning to us that her lung capacity is getting more and more compromised making it harder for her to breathe.

This morning, I called our hospice nurse, Stephanie, RN. She immediately came out to assess Kaitlyn and she said that she could definitely hear some sounds in her lungs but it was more of a dryness rather than fluid or pneumonia. Good news but we are still very concerned with her disease progression and the possibility of the end getting closer. Her lungs are already so compromised from her enlarged liver and spleen, that hearing her struggle to breathe, while she's on oxygen 24hrs a day, is really difficult.

Hanging out with her bunny watching Tinkerbell

What we have been advised to do is to give her saline breathing treatments 1-2 times a day to help with the dryness in her lungs but also to have her suction machine close by (which we do anyway) in case she gets too much moisture and chokes on it. Also, we are to give her morphine. That is one thing that we learned during the course of Kaitlyn's disease is that morphine is not only a strong pain reliever but it relaxes muscles and makes it easier to breathe, making the breaths that she does take more efficient. We will be giving that to her on a regular basis to help her breathing.

We also learned that toward the end of life, the body can have a difficult time regulating temperature and fever can be common. It's really hard to determine what is what sometimes, but overall we just want her to be comfortable and do what's best for her. Hospice gave us a really good booklet on things that you could expect to happen toward the end of life. I'll try to see if I can post it on the blog under resources. Keep an eye out for it if you are interested in learning more.

So that is what's going on here! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and spends each day to the fullest and makes every moment count.

LAST YEAR- Cole and Kaitlyn- One of my favorite pictures EVER!

(Psalm 46:1-3)
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.