Peggy's eyes are back to almost normal today. Phew! Here's the update:
Ty came by last night and looked at Peggy's eyes which were extremely red and irritated. Ty gave her an eye lubricant called "TobraDex". This ointment contains both an antibiotic and a steroid. Ty instructed us to put this on Peggy's lower eye lids every 2 hours. She sugested placing a very small amount of the oinment on a Q-tip and rolling the oinment into her eye or on her eyelid. She even said taht we could use the Q-tip to gently dry up or suck up any excess tears in teh bottom of her eye before putting in the ointment so that it would stay in. She also recommends that we use this method when using the PM refresh gel so that we can minimize how much we are using. It is OK to use the PM gel with the TobraDex, however, it is best to wait approximately 30 minutes after you put in the TobraDex before putting Refresh in.
Ty called in a prescription for the new ointment (it should be covered by Peggy's insurance which is a good thing since it is around $40 for a tiny tube). Ty also is calling in a prescription for Restasis. She is not sure if the Restasis drops will work for Peggy since the way they work is to increase your own tear production - she does not think that this is Peggy's problem, but thought it couldn't hurt to give it a try. She also agreed with a suggestion from Betsy's sister which is to tape just one of her eyes every night - alternating eyes. Understandably, Peggy doesn't like the idea of taping her eyes shut since she wants to be sure she can let the nurses know when she is awake. Taping just one eye a night however, would allow at least one eye to rest and heal each night.
Today Peggy's eyes look great and her eye movement seems back to normal. I have gotten reports from the past 2 days that Peggy's eye movement was very slow and she was having trouble tracking and keeping her eyes open. I talked with Peggy about this and she agrees that a big part of the eyelid and tracking problem was probably - surprise, surprise - FATIGUE!!! Peggy had little sleep Sunday night. Last night she says she slept better than she has in weeks and today her eyes are working great - think there might be a correlation there, Peg? :)
Another theory that Peggy and Ty have regarding Peggy's eyelid heaviness is that her upper eyelids are inflamed, making them hard for Peggy to lift. Peggy thinks that dust sticks to the PM gel and irriates her eyes/causes inflammation in her lids. Ty will be coming by to check on Peggy again tonight. Thank you so much, Ty - you are the BEST!!!
The only other real issue that we discussed during the Doc visit was Peggy's toe. Her podiatry appointment went well yesterday (after a little "comedy of errors" getting her to the right Dr. Morris's office). He removed a small portion of the infected skin and toenail and that it should clear up in a few days. He said that the toenail portion digging into the skin is liek a splinter and is causing the area to become reddened and infected. Dr. Davis has Peggy on a new antibiotic for the MRSA. Please remember to continue to wear gloves at all times when caring for Peggy. Dr. Morris gave us some instructions on cleaning the toe - the Healthcare Alternatives staff will be taking care of this 2x a day.
A few med updates – Dr. Davis has increased Peggy's citrucel to 2 tbsp 2x a day. and Ibuprofen to 2 tabs 3x a day. Peggy reported no problems with the trach this week.
Peggy did want Dr. Davis to know that she has a lot of fear regarding her eyes. Peggy was very anxious and upset the past few days and was terrified that she was losing her ocular movement. However, Peggy said that her mood today is great. I'm sure the good night's sleep last night helped her feel better all around.
So that's the latest. Hope you like Hanna and Peggy's latest costume creation for Dr. D - they call it "Feeling Crabby". Ha!
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