Tuesday Doc Visit Report

Peg had her doc visit today (with Dr. D all the way in Seattle at a conference!). Here is the report:

Trach - Peggy said that she has been having constant pain in the trach and on the outside around the trach. When she is inline suctioned, it adds a little pain. Dr. Davis is aware of this issue, but didn't have any solution right now.

UT issues - Peggy says that she has no more burning sensation. So we're assuming that that antibiotics did their job.

Skin rash - Peggy has a rash on both her arms and she says that it does hurt (a "5" on a scale of 1 to 10). She is worried that it is spreading to her shoulders and back. Dr. Davis said that this could be a reaction to the antibiotic. He has recommended that we continue to use Lotrimin on it and he has also ordered another ointment that Catherine will pick up for us.

Speaking of Catherine, who helped us with the doc visit today - did you know that she is pregnant...with twins! She is only a few months pregnant, so she doesn't know if it is girls or boys. So exciting!

Back to the visit...

Hallucinations - Peggy says that has had only 2 hallucinations this week and that they occur usually after 3pm. They made her feel out of control and they seem very real. Obviously, her hallucinations are quite reduced - she only had 2 all week compared to the 4 to 5 she was having per day. Rhea had heard in a seminar that hallucinations can be caused by UTIs and so we're thinking now that the UTI she had was causing (or at least worsening) the hallucinations. Interesting.

Peggy says that her mood this week has been "good".

We've had a full house here today. We have a new B volunteer on Tuesday mornings - her name is Dana and she is an old friend of Peggy's from the SS Independence. She worked on the cruise ship when Peggy taught art on board. She has great stories of Peggy and the Beamers! They were a wild bunch on that ship!

We're missing Hanna today, but we love getting to hang with Miss Lisa. And we have Karen and Rhea here too. We also had a promising interview today with a potential private hire. We'll keep you posted!