1 PM

Well the nausea persists... She is not vomiting but is nauseated and food sounds horrible. I am making sure she is hydrated and eating what ever I can get her to eat. We have been reading about nausea after a craniotomy on the internet and it is quite common. I pray it ends soon. She is weak and has lost 17 pounds in 19 days. Not the way anyone wants to loose weight.

She is also experiencing some insomnia. Again one of the side effects of a craniotomy which has been magnified by taking fioricet. She has only had three fioricet pain pills in two days. I dont think that it is proper to not take pain meds when in pain but she says anything including pain is better than nausea.

Other side effects include hearing swishing in the head, a thumping or tapping noise in the head, jaw pain and an inability to open her mouth as far as before. She is also experiencing what are called the heebie jeebies, or random firing of nerves in her head which cause twitches and shooting minor pain sensations. The area of the scull which was removed is also really itchy but when she scratches it she cant feel her fingers touch it. All of these are common side effects and usually dissipate with time and are caused by the nerves reattaching and reactivating. These definately cause stress and crazy worrisome thoughts.

Please pray she can get over the nausea and be able to eat so she can regain her strength, also pray for the insomnia to cease, and the side effects to go away soon. Please pray for my endurance and patience to care for Holly and the kids.

Holly wanted me to express that my last blogs were not very accurate. I actually made them sound too nice, she wanted you all to know that Friday and Saturday were her worst days since the two after surgery. That is how bad they were.

Basically she had narked her bowels with narcotics and the buildup of poop was toxic and caused EXTREME nausea. She was hours from having to go to the emergency room. However, she was officially able to blow the toilet up and she feels much better today. Now it is strength building time.

We just finished Spencer's 6th birthday party at the skating rink. Holly made it through half of it before she had to have Sandy drive her home. Her bowels are officially completely cleaned out. Sorry about all the poop and puke blogs, maybe that worry is over. The doc says within a couple of days she should feel much better. She was 24 hours from having to go to the hospital because of the toxins accumulated in her and her inability to get them out.

She has not had pain meds in two days or nights, she just refuses. I think she needs them especially at night but she does not want to go through what she did the last two days. She does have a high pain tolerance.

Now it is time to gain strength every day. Her recovery has basically been delayed by so many ill effects of meds. Hopefully that is behind us.

5 PM

Three poops and two pukes since noon. It has been the worst day since we were discharged from the hospital. I think she will feel better when she gets rid of all the toxins in her body.

12:30 PM

Holly went through the night without pain meds. She moaned a few times but forced herself to go back to sleep. She said she was done with pain meds. Five laxatives and an enema and not much poop yet. The doc gave her other suggestions we are working on. She is really clogged up. I suppose when it gets flowing look out.

We just gave her a fioricet to releave her head pain, she is tough but she gave in and took one, still definately still needs pain meds, she is still nauseated but not puking. She says all she would have to do is stand over the toilet and look down and she could puke. She is not hungry at all we are having to force her to eat soft foods.

The doc says this is all from not pooping, so we will be patient and let the laxatives work. The toxins from all the meds are built up in her system and cant escape without pooping. I hope my next blog will report massive flowing poop. Sorry about all of this poop and puke talk but I feel so sorry for Holly.

Well yesterday late afternoon Dr. Hoh prescribed lortab for pain to replace the fioricet. Surprise surprise, this morning Holly woke up and started puking again. She then had to take anti nausea meds and she slept all day, it makes her so groggy I have trouble waking her up even shaking her. I am getting frustrated, it seems like since surgery the only troubles we have had are related to the medicines she has to take. Percocet and lortab make her puke, anti nausea meds either dont work or make her drowsy, fioricet makes her hyper and gives insomnia. So I called the doc again, I spoke to his PA, she said she believes Holly is impacted from the pain meds and this could become serious. So Holly is now trying two over the counter meds to make her poop again. So far no success. The PA said it is critical that she poops by tomorrow and I am to call and inform her tomorrow. So my question to her was what do I give Holly for pain when she goes to bed. Her answer was give her benedryl or tylenol PM and 30 minutes later give her the fioricet to take care of the pain and hopefully the sleep aids will counteract the caffeine in the fioricet. My bathroom looks like a pharmacy! I think this blog is turning into a listing of side effects of drugs and how they all are preventing Holly from just sleeping and healing. Since surgery I have been reporting about giving her drugs and more drugs to counteract the other drug and then give another drug to counteract that drug and ...

I am getting frustrated with drugs and their dang side effects. Why cant we just simply control the pain so she can sleep and heal. Please pray for all of these side effects to end and for the need for pain meds to end asap! Remember Holly is a tough one with a high pain tolerance, she had all three kids all natural with no pain meds. I guarantee if she says her head hurts that it is not a minor pain, but luckily the pain is mostly at night when she is lying down.

I know you all are waiting for Holly's first profound blog. She is a little upset with me that I put so much pressure on her. Thus you will have to wait. You are going to get more blogging from me for a while.

Holly did over do yesterday. She went to bed with a bad headache and took a fioricet. She is having trouble sleeping at night and even during the day since she has been taking fioricet. Interesting when I looked it up on drugs.com that it has caffeine in it. Holly has never been a big caffeine person. Anyway the insomnia she has had is due to the caffeine in the pain meds. So at midnight last night she took a percocet so she could get rid of the headache and sleep, against Sandy and my recommendation. Guess what, mild nausea has returned. Proof the nausea is from that darn percocet. I just called the doc to get something without caffeine to control the pain, they will call me back. Strange how all these meds are needed to control pain and they all have side effects hampering the healing process.

Holly is also really tired today, she definitely over did yesterday. Once she went to sleep last night she slept until 12:30 this afternoon. She is still really weak. She will take it easy today and rest, Dr. Ohs' orders.