General Update #49

5:09 p.m. - Joyce's oxygen/pulse sensor attached to her finger failed and unit was replaced around 5:19 p.m. when a new one was brought up. Joyce's oxygen level at 95%.

5:30 p.m. - Joyce finished entire tray of food. Requesting hot water for tea. Joyce asked if that means that she is feeling better and Dusty commented that he thought it was a good indicator. 

5:51 p.m. - Stocker arrived to check on Joyce and remove her food tray. Will return with hot water for Joyce.

5:52 p.m. - Joyce asked Dusty to update her on what they are planning to do with her. Dusty provided recounting of current plan for moving Joyce to Aspen Park facility tomorrow. Stocker returned with hot water for Joyce. Stocker informed Joyce that he is heading home for the day and probably won't see her again before she is transferred to Aspen Park. Stocker let Joyce know that she has been a delight to care for, that he enjoyed visiting with her, and he hopes to meet her again out around Moscow in the future after she is recovered. Joyce thanked him for his care of her. 

Joyce reports her insides are hurting but she felt like she wanted to eat. Joyce's eyes are brighter and she is more alert after her dinner.

Joyce admired Dusty's portable desk, commenting that it was very useful and handy for him to have while he works in the hospital room with her.

6:29 p.m. - Joyce asked Dusty to bring her the Redwall book she was currently reading from the farm when she is moved over to Aspen Park. Joyce asked how long she has to be away from home. Dusty stated 4 weeks at the longest.

7:16 p.m. - Dr. Keizur discovered Joyce was still at Gritman and so stopped by to visit. Infomred Joyce that the kidney stone came out fine and she should feel better having that gone. Keizur reminded Joyce and Dusty that the stint needs to be removed and that appointment to see him for it should be scheduled by Gritman's staff before she is transferred to extended care facility and the care facility will ensure she gets taken to the appointment. Wished Joyce well and said that he would see her when she comes in for stint's removal and expects she will be much better along at that time.

7:26 p.m. - Stephanie, nurse's aide for the night shift, arrived to visit Joyce and update the room information board. Informed Joyce that Melissa would be her nurse for the night while she and Lucy would be her nurse's aides. Aileen was the charge nurse. Checked Joyce's vitals. Blood pressure was 140/76. Oxygen at 93%, pulse 93. Temperature at 99 degrees. Joyce taken to bathroom by Stephanie. A "good" bowel movement occurred. Lucy arrived and returned Joyce to the recliner around 7:46 p.m., making her comfortable and reclining Joyce back. Joyce requested some pain medication and Lucy said she would go ask the nurse if it could be administered. Joyce thinks she is at about a 6 out of 10 on the pain scale. Joyce very happy that she had some bowel movement. 

7:58 p.m. - Stephanie checked in on Joyce. Joyce indicated she was doing fine. 

8:02 p.m. - Joyce asked how long she has to stay at Aspen Park, Dusty stated 4 weeks. Joyce expressed concern on how she was to pay for it. Dusty informed Joyce that Medicare will cover it, mostly. 

8:07 p.m. - Melissa arrived to administer evening medication (antibiotic, blood pressure) and pain reliever (Tramadol). Melissa estimates that the pain reliever will take about 45 minutes to become effective. Joyce joked that she will start a clock on the pain relief. Melissa said that about 8:55 p.m. Joyce should be feeling it kick in. 

8:30 p.m. - Stephanie arrived to test Joyce's blood sugar levels. Reading was 237. Joyce wanted to know if the high number was due to her having had dinner. Stephanie reviewed the day's readings, noted that Joyce has been up and down all day. Stephanie ensured that Joyce was comfortable then departed to relay Joyce's reading to the nurse.

8:40 a.m. - Melissa arrived to administer 1 unit of insulin to Joyce. Joyce marveled at the bruises on her stomach area.

8:52 p.m. - Joyce requested to be taken to the bathroom. Urine passed. Trip completed around 8:58 p.m. and Joyce returned to recliner and made comfortable. Melissa inquired about Joyce's pain levels. Joyce indicated she was still in pain, in the middle of her back. Melissa said that the lidocaine patch is still in place. There is an IV medication that can be administered, but it could make Joyce a little loopy. Joyce indicated that she would like to wait, the pain increase she was experiencing most likely caused by moving around in her chair and travel to and from the bathroom. Melissa told Joyce to summon her if needed, otherwise she will check back in about 20 minutes.

Dusty packing up and preparing to depart for home for the night. Will plan to return around 7 a.m - 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. 

Message(s) from Joyce:

Joyce is so happy that the chemotherapy was done and over with in the past, mostly because when she was taking it she could not eat shrimp (it tasted bad). Since finishing the chemotherapy, shrimp tastes normal to her again. 

Joyce was thinking how nice it would be to have a family gathering and just sit and talk out at the farm when she is able to return there. "Maybe we could even start doing that regularly. Once a month or every other month. So we could all be together while there is time."

Joyce never sold anything at the farmers market in Moscow, and doesn't think they would have done as well selling things there as the current vendors do had she and Loyal had a booth. Joyce then thought that she could probably have done well selling her whole wheat by the bag, or whole wheat muffins, or sourdough bread. "They'd probably get a demand for it, having some and then come back for more." 

Joyce was invited once to play cards with Fran Fleener. Joyce didn't know how to play cards, and was "too stupid then" to ask Fran to teach Joyce how to play cards. Joyce felt like their relationship changed after that, and Joyce regrets that. Fran was in the Army, did you know that? A dietitian for the army. She was a very nice, interesting person. Joyce stopped by one day at Sam and Fran's home and Sam was working at canning pears, while Fran was doing something else. That struck Joyce as funny as Fran was a dietitian. Joyce could not ever imagine Loyal canning pears, so that must be why it struck her as funny. There is a lot to canning. You've got to boil your jars. For pears you need to peel them and take the seeds out. It's a process.

Joyce never canned meat out of concerns for safety of the family. Joyce was too afraid that she would do something wrong in the process and kill everyone. Alice used to can meat when Joyce was growing up. She had a rectangular canner that Joyce thinks was 2.5 feet or maybe 3 feet wide with handles that came off its sides, and would can in the basement for hours. All the steam would build up as you had to boil that canned meat for hours. Alice canned a lot of things and Joyce enjoyed it all. Alice made great tomato juice. She canned her own concord grape juice, but in quart jars whereas Joyce uses 2 quart jars. "You get more that way!" Alice would make ground up mincemeat, as did June. Joyce wasn't so fond of either of these. Joyce thinks they used venison, and that just was not palatable to Joyce. Alice made her own pickles and those were good. Alice didn't make relish, or a lot of the different things Joyce has canned. Alice made lots of jams. Peanut butter sandwich time at the Briney house was always a welcome affair! 

Alice was a 4-H leader. Joyce was in 4-H for around 8-10 years, somewhere in there. Being in 4-H was how Joyce came to Moscow for the first time. They would have a 4-H event in the month of June on the UI campus and you would come down and stay in the dorms. It was the highlight of the year! Hayes Hall was where Joyce was often billeted. Then later on they were placed into a newer dorm which Joyce cannot recall the name of, but it wasn't near Hayes. Joyce raised animals and then would show them at the fair. They would have to go through a routine and stand just right. And then Joyce did sewing. She didn't go into the canning food part, though, so that was weird. June liked sewing more than the canning, so that probably is why Alice focused on that more with the girls. June took to sewing more. Both Alice and June took some sewing classes. Alice traveled to the UI one time and she took a class on making a suit. She did a good job, it looked nice on her. They showed her how to make darts properly and those kind of things. It was probably a week long class (that Alice was at the UI). June was old enough that she was left in charge of Joyce, Skip, and Kathy. 

Joyce's graduate level classes in dyslexia were done at the University of Puget Sound, she thinks. She had to teach classes, and that's how she got the graduate credits. Joyce taught 3 different subjects. She was assigned a student as well and had to teach him how to deal with his disability. She worked with him for days and he had improvement. Joyce cannot remember the boy's name, but she still has the paperwork from working with him so the name is on there. She knew what to do because she had been learning from one of the professors over there. An attorney in Coeur d'Alene was who educated Loyal and Joyce about what dyslexia was, and he was the catalyst to getting Joyce over to taking classes in Washington.

Joyce does not think she is related to the E.H. Briney who attended the UI circa 1921. 

Current location:

Gritman Medical Center, Room 202.

Current pain level:

6 out of 10 at 7:55 p.m.

Visiting information:

No change from previous post:

Currently only 1 visitor per day for Joyce, no exceptions. Once current visitor departs Joyce's room, no further visits for the rest of the day. No swapping out visitors (example, Dusty cannot remain on hospital grounds while Craig goes to sit with Joyce for an hour and then Dusty returns to room).