Groundhog days

Hi All.

The weeks are passing by very quickly at this point and our lives seem to have taken on a kind of groundhog day feel. Things seem pretty routine but are very boring - especially for Dave. I have the distraction of going to work Monday to Friday, but Dave is at home. He just doesn't feel up to going out much and prefers to be home where he can rest.

Yesterday was a good day for Dave, but for the most of the week he had it pretty rough. He's had a lot of lower back pain (same pain that he had 10 years ago after injuring his back). On Friday evening he didn't sleep at all because his sciatic nerve (another old injury) was really bothering him - but interestingly he decided to go down and let the dog out himself when I was busy Saturday morning, and then when he came back up the stairs his sciatic wasn't bothering him anymore. (He normally doesn't do the stairs unless I get him to do it for exercise when the weather is crappy.)

Saturday morning he had a lot of pain from his feeding tube area. Although it looks great on the outside, it's very tender when he moves the tube itself. So, when he changed the dressing Saturday it was excruciating for him. I decided to contact the hospital radiology unit to ask them about it. (When they put his feeding tube in they said to call them directly with problems - not the family doctor, or emerg.) They`re closed on the weekends, but a radiology nurse called me back. (She remembered Dave from all his earlier issues and she was really nice.) She made an appointment for him to go in early Monday morning to get it checked out. 

Dave took some pain meds for the feeding tube pain in the morning and felt pretty good all day. We went for a walk later in the day and in typical form he wanted to walk much farther than we normally do because he was feeling good, but I wouldn`t let him. We walked a little farther, but you never know how he`ll feel coming back. Anyway he felt good after the walk - which isn`t usually the case. A few hours later after he ate, he started getting abdominal cramps and it became very painful. It kept him up all night on the couch. So unfortunately he hasn`t slept for 2 nights. I`m not sure if the abdominal cramps are related to the feeding tube pain. We`ll see what they say tomorrow morning.

This past week we`ve had a Cardinal nesting in a potted tree on our front porch. It`s pretty neat. The male comes around and sings out front. Yesterday 2 of the 3 eggs had hatched and the 3rd egg was rolling around in the nest! I`m sure it`s only a day or two before we hear the fledglings chirping out asking for food! (This one has it`s mouth open, but it`s not making any noise yet.)

Anyway, that`s our week.

Take care,

Val