Posted: 04-22-2025
The balancing act of trying to find comfort, care, and rest continued last night. We got the melatonin in around 6:15pm, and Dallas was super ready for bed by 7pm—so, lights out! All was quiet until the nurse’s aide came in for vitals, followed by housekeeping, and then a respiratory therapist came in to demo the cough assist to a co-worker (in training?). Mind you, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner—not exactly what you want running three feet from your bedside when trying to sleep.
With that, I let her sleep in a bit this morning, and we had a slow start. While we want to get a good start on the day’s routine to help establish a better circadian rhythm, we’ve got to use discretion when she hasn’t had the best sleep.
PT/OT came by and brought up Botox again for her legs. Neuro wants to wait until after her PLEX is finished, but maybe we can get it on the books for the end of next week. Her right leg seems more stiff, tone-wise, and Botox would be really beneficial.
They mentioned working on sensory things between PT/OT sessions—spending time doing stretches and pairing that with things like wearing her new (soft) AFOs when she’s in the chair. We’ll also plan to use the soft hand rolls when she’s resting in bed, to maybe prevent the need for hand splints—her arms and hands seemed a little tighter today, so trying to stay ahead of it.
We were happy to get Dallas back outside again today to soak in some sun and serenity—it’s something we really look forward to every day, weather permitting.
It’s still a bit of a challenge to get the timing of night meds, vitals, etc., where we want them. Her med team had “made some changes,” but the nurse let us know her night meds were still scheduled for 9pm—so it sounds like we’ve still got some work to do!
Heather is on the night shift this evening and did some of the routine things Dallas would find familiar from home—brushing teeth, maybe a little massage, some stretching (see tree pose pic!), and likely a story. Doing these things to help signal that it’s bedtime will hopefully help regulate her sleep cycle. Otherwise, she’s on guard to keep the unnecessary folks/services out of the room so our girl can focus on needed sleep.
“Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create.” — Jana Kingsford
5 Comments
Leave a Reply
© 2025 Dallas Neville. All Rights Reserved.
Who can sleep in a hospital? Hope tonight is better.
Love her position.
Dreaming ballet!
May she get some healing sleep. Sunshine when she goes I outside, fresh air, natures medicine. Hope you get some sleep tonight also.
May the plex bring about healing. As always soft hugs and kisses and always my prayers..Aunt Grace and family
Continued prayers for you all!!! Love you!!💝
💞🙏💞🙏💞🙏💞
Brett & Heather, Katy and I are following your updates even when we don’t comment. Know that we are keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers and for continued improvement so Dallas, you and Heather can go home soon. Love, Buddy and Katy
Why do they always do silly things at night? Like, do you need to inventory the Q-tips at midnight? I also had a nurse-in-training doing my port access once and it was a nightmare. My brother said “you know you can just say, no, you don’t want to participate in training” and I don’t know why I didn’t even consider that. You might mention that to your shift nurse – no training nurses/residence doctors please, especially not at night – if that’s an option.