Heart, Toes, and Sore Behinds! Oh, My!

This evening Mary had the worst case of chest pain I think she's ever had without me taking her to the hospital. I can give her 3 nitroglycerin spaced 5 minutes apart but then we're supposed to head the the ER. I tell her that after the third one and ask, with this in light, how bad is it really. She never wants to go to the hospital, of course. But I think if it were really, really bad, she'd let me know. Sometimes it does seem to go away and then come back--usually an hour later--and that can happen several times, but this time it was more like 15-20 minutes apart. One thing I've learned is that she gets hot and if I fan her and cool her down, she seems to get better, but that didn't work as well tonight as usual.

I often feel guilty because all I really want to do is go to sleep. This started happening around 8 or 8:30 and was over with around 9:30. I could tell she was going to go to sleep, and I was so glad because for some odd reason, I couldn't hold my eyes open. I turned out all the lights and laid down on the couch and did go straight to sleep, but here it is 11 o'clock and I'm wide awake. I thought for sure it was 1 or 2 in the morning. I was really hoping to turn over a new leaf because I've gotten so that I stay up pretty regularly till 2:30 or even 3:15 and then I can't wake up in the morning.

Darn! The light from my computer screen seems to be waking her up!

She still has a sore on her toe. Which reminds me that I didn't change the bandage this evening. That means there will be hell to pay tomorrow because it will be more difficult to remove. I actually have a patch of Medi-Honey that I'm using--I got it at the Wound Care Center, oops, Wound Healing Center. It's odd, two weeks ago, they seemed to think everything looked relatively OK, but this time the doctor was pushing for her to have the toe removed. They started telling me that she had a staff infection in the wound. I protested that I was told there was no infection. Then they saw that someone else's test results had been placed in her file! How slipshod! Well, I'm taking her for an MRI on Saturday. This was supposed to be my weekend off. So much for that. But this needs to be taken care of. They will be able to see if there is an infection in the bone, I think. The toe is slightly swollen, so they're pretty sure there is an infection in there. She refuses point-blank to have her toe removed, but it is very painful for her. I just don't know what to do. I can't force her. But if the infection spreads and she has to have part of her leg removed, I won't be able to take care of her. It's no wonder I can't sleep!

To make matters worse, she keeps getting little bouts of diarrhea and then her bucket, I mean behind, gets sore. She won't let me wipe it, which just makes matters worse. I have some sort of moisture blocking salve from days gone by that I rub on there (eeewww). Who knows if it helps. I'm going to look for anusol wipes at the store tomorrow or maybe ask the pharmasist. Lovely sort of question!

Well, she's into the moaning now. Maybe I'll try to move to the couch behind her with my computer...