Stahlke Adoption

Update

During the last week, my father has been sleeping around the clock, waking for only a short time each day. It's difficult to know if his sleeping comes from the morphine or his physical condition. It's probably both. Yesterday, he spoke a lot more, for the first time in days, although my mother and sister couldn't understand his words very well. When I sang to him by telephone, told him I loved him, and said goodbye, I know he heard me because he said "bye" back to me.

One of the sources of his pain is stiffening of the muscles. We received an email today from his doctor at Johns Hopkins, who recommended a drug that will hopefully give some relief for the stiffness. The hospice nurse comes tomorrow, and my mother and sister will ask her about it. The doctor at Hopkins has been a wonderful resource, since my father's illness is not well-known even in the medical field, and the doctor is a specialist, running a memory study for which my Dad is a participant. Hopefully, the Hopkins doctor will be able to use my father's experience to learn more about this condition and find better treatments for future patients.

posted by Stahlkes @ 9:51 PM