This journey hasn't been without it's lessons on so many levels. On October 8th I wrote that her pain levels had increased, so lets talk about that. There can be muscle pain, bone pain, nerve pain, dull pain, sharp burning pain, throbbing pain, etc. The core level of pain relief is slow acting, taking 2-3 days to become effective... even just cranking them up a notch. The purpose of these is to avoid the highs and lows requiring pain meds every two hours by providing a continuous levels of slow-to-act but long lasting relief. Madison takes those 3 and 4 times a day. One drawback is that these don't cover all of the pain variations. On Saturday afternoon and Sunday Madison's pain level increased significantly. Her doctor authorized us to crank up the slow acting meds, and crank the instant relief meds to maximum levels, which basically put Madison in to hibernation mode. Every two hours she needed a huge hit of instant relief meds, and then would go back to sleep... and that lasted about 36 hours. Her care team also suggested large doses over-the-counter ibuprofen and another prescription of an anti-inflammatory. By Tuesday night, the (slow-to-act) long acting meds had kicked in, and the anti-inflammatory meds also provided significant relief so much so, that Madison's was able to throttle back the instant relief meds. Her quest is to be as awake and alert as possible, versus being heavily sedated. She calls the shots balancing how little how much she needs to control the pain without compromising her comfort. That said...
On Wednesday a drive through the Santa Monica mountains via Topanga Canyon, up Fernwood to the peak was in order. From the summit you can see the ocean so hey, we're this far, right? We took Tuna Canyon down to the coast, then PCH over took to the Malibu pier and she went for it: Madi walked to the end of the peer and sat on a bench, watched the surfers and absorbed the other sights and the cool ocean breeze.
The moral of the story... there will be bad days and there will be worse days, but when there are not-so-bad days, try and make each count. To quote Kung Fu Panda: "yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift... that's why they call it the present".
Love,
The Jones Family
On Wednesday a drive through the Santa Monica mountains via Topanga Canyon, up Fernwood to the peak was in order. From the summit you can see the ocean so hey, we're this far, right? We took Tuna Canyon down to the coast, then PCH over took to the Malibu pier and she went for it: Madi walked to the end of the peer and sat on a bench, watched the surfers and absorbed the other sights and the cool ocean breeze.
The moral of the story... there will be bad days and there will be worse days, but when there are not-so-bad days, try and make each count. To quote Kung Fu Panda: "yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift... that's why they call it the present".
Love,
The Jones Family
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