Thu 2/19/2004 7:27 AM

Good Morn Y'all,

What a beautiful day it was yesterday.  A bit on cool side, high of 52, but breezy, which made you want to keep a jacket on in the shade, but hot in the car.

All is pretty good here.  Dad is still snoozing and slept through the night.  I kept waking up and listening for him to be on the prowel but he wasn't.

Mom was very groggy yesterday.  I fussed at the staff about that (in the evening).  Julia, the nurse aid, said mom didn't get her dilantin until 10 am that that is making her very sleepy.  Julia said the pill nurse is gabbin too much and not getting the pills to the residents in a timely manor.  The pill nurse, said she had to get it an hour after her breakfast.  Mom was up for lunch, so to speak, but the speach therapist basically had to feed her, because she was too groggy.  We had Julia put her down after we left to sleep off the dilantin. 

Dad and I went back to see her at 5pm and she was fast asleep.  I had to shake her to wake he up to eat dinner.  Lori the RN was there and I spoke to her about the dilantin.  Lori said it should be taken on an empty stomach. I asked, if she could get it before breakfast, because it was interfearing with her entire day, taking it as late as 10 am.  She is unable to get any therapy if she is semi-comatose due to the lateness of getting a pill.  I am not too sure why it is making her so sleepy.  If you look at the drug side effects on the net about dilantin, it really says the sleepiness occurs at high doses.  The staff told me she wasn't on a high dose of it at all.  But I don't know if it is reacting with another one of her pills that is making her more sleepy when she takes it.  Lori said she would look into it since she is so sleepy during the day.  I just wonder if she is awake at night because of it.  Tina the evening tech said she also complained to the nurses about the lateness of the pills and that Mom wasn't getting them properly.

So if anyone wants to visit mom, she may be very sleepy during the day. Perhaps the best visiting would be right at noon or 12:30 since she has to be semi-awake to eat.

That's about all for today, since I don't have much to talk about since it is a bit boring talking about Mom sleeping.  Oh, when I woke her for dinner, she did look good.  Her eyes were bright and she looked her normal self (that is normal after the strokes).  I had her interested in looking at some family pictures and she was doing that until we had to leave to get Dad fed.

Y'all have a great day.

Love,  Mary and Ed