Saturday, October 27, 2012

Day 8 Circadian Conudrums

Does anyone really know what time it is?
Lisa certainly did not for at least the first 5 post-op days. She was consistently off by half a day, and sincerely, completely, mystified when I'd tell her it was daytime, and she thought it was night, or visa versa. The persistence, and strength of this delusion began to worry me after a few days but, then I realized her internal clock was off by half a day, the same amount of time she was under deep anesthesia, that's pretty interesting(well to me at least).
I'm not sure if this has anything to do with her inability to sleep the last two nights, as the amount of time in any given day that she sleeps has gone down, I thought, perhaps, her circadian clock was just out of whack but, when she gave up on sleep last night and came down stairs, she spent a little time on the internet, then went into the living room and laid on the couch. She slept well for a few hours, until I think the noise of Joey, the dogs, and I, probably woke her up. We're going to try the couch from the gate tonight, and see if that works better. I have a suspicion that it will because I think, it has more to do with the more comfortable, and higher angle, the extra support of the couch arm allows, than extra pillows on a flat bed.
The, in my opinion, radical Decadron (steroidal anti-inflammatory) taper is on, from 30 mg to 24mg, to 6mg, to 2mg, per day, in four days.  The fact that is a non-linear taper bugs me a bit, but then I am completely ignorant of the physiology/chemistry involved, and it seems to be standardized to the point they had a ready form to follow they gave me.
The more time goes by, and the more I read of other people's experiences, the more I think we have been incredibly fortunate thus far, and it seems the largest contributing factor to this, is that Dr. Al Meftie is a phenomenally talented and gifted surgeon.

Onward...

3 comments:

  1. Hey Kevin you sound like a fantastic guy.You have really taken excellent care of my cousin Lisa.You must truly love her.Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for her.She is very important to me.I would like to call and talk to her.When would be a good time to do that?Thanks cousin,Kim

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  2. Once I was given a steroid shot in my shoulder and it kept me up for a day. I had mentioned it to a nurse friend of mine at the time, and she told me yes that happens. Maybe Lisa is having the same reaction.

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  3. I looked up radical Decadron and it says it causes sleep disturbances. So until she is off of that it will be hard to say if it is something besides that medicine. But it looks like that may be what is causing the problem or at least part of the problem. At least it is something she will be off soon.
    Carla

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