Ok, so we saw Dr. Mahoney this morning. We discussed the Vicadin and Susan (Dr. Mahoney) felt that the prime objective was to keep mother comfortable. She thought that increasing her dosage of Vicodin by increasing the frequency was quite acceptable and felt no concern that I was moving mother too quickly down the medication road. She prescribed more Vicodin at a dosage of 1 every 4 hours. She also felt that supplementing it with extra strength Tylenol was fine as it is not habit forming nor does it promote constipation. since mother has moved her stool quite nicely the last couple of days we seem to have that issue under control as well.

Dr. Mahoney said another interesting thing. She said that she has seen cases where patients with metastasized cancer expire within weeks of the diagnosis. However those that take care of themselves or have someone who takes good care of them can often survive for years. Because of mother's support system Susan feels that Oma's road will be a longer one and she wants to make sure that it is free of struggle and pain. (pardon me while I scratch, I itch all over, comes from sleeping in an anthill at county park... :-))   

We did another round of tests with the oxygen and Susan just called and was sorry to report that mother again did not qualify. The numbers dropped when mother exerted herself but then did not rise when she used the oxygen. Susan really wants mother to have the oxygen so we are planning one more test for Thursday afternoon at 4pm. We think it might be in the way the testing is done and we will give it one more attempt. Susan feels that it would be nice to keep the oxygen even if it just offers mother a level of comfort or a fallback position when she feels short of breath.   

So then we went to lunch at the mother's favorite restaurant and then grocery shopping before heading home for our afternoon nap. Here we are, time for another dose of Vicodin.   

me