14 July 2025
Sorry if you weren't able to access the site this weekend. The server stopped responding after I tried to block some nasty bots from devouring our allotted bandwidth. But we're back in business now.
So I can report a few developments.
As far as the Lexapro dosage increase goes, one is told not to expect immediate results. But there are immediate side effects.
Joyce began receiving the 20mg dosage last Thursday and on Saturday and Sunday had diarrhea. Today, however, she didn't have a bowel movement, so maybe she's adjusting to the new dose.
She can still get quite frightened and worried, though. And panic.
Yesterday she called me several times as I was trying to put something together for dinner to ask where her trekking pole was. Sometimes I put it in the corner, fully extended and sometimes I leave it collapsed, hanging from the back of the wheelchair.
She doesn't use it unless I'm there and she can't see the wheelchair very clearly from bed. But she could panic. So she did.
Eventually she saw it was still in the room (not being able to trek by itself) and called to tell me. And after that, I ate dinner.
So I'm hoping the new dosage works.
When I checked her email on Sunday (which I do infrequently), I saw one from the Kaiser pharmacy at the French campus on Geary. She had an order waiting.
Her prescriptions are handled by the SNF through their Hayward pharmacy so this was odd. But not very odd. Her podiatrist had ordered some Ketoconazole cream to fight skin infections on her feet. Her skin is very dry there and peeling.
At the appointment he had told me he cleaned her feet with alcohol and I had planned to bring some isopropyl alcohol from home on Sunday but I read that Vashe was superior (it doesn't sting) and we have a lot of Vashe around here. So I washed her feet in Vashe on Sunday.
And today they looked normal. Already. So even though I'd picked up the Ketoconazole, I washed her feet in Vashe before she put her shoes on. But after she had done her walk with the RNAs and was ready to return to the room, I used the cream just as the pharmacist had recommended (generously all over) and put her hospital socks on.
So she got the best of both worlds.
She has a debridement this Wednesday. I told Binita the Wound Nurse today so she wouldn't have to do the dressing change that day.
I also wanted to know what she thought about the bed sore. I'd seen it Sunday (or tried to). It seemed to have healed. She confirmed that. The mattress is working. I also told her about the foot cream. She'll be happy to apply it on my day off.
Joyce and I have a quarterly review at the SNF on Friday. I don't know why they call it a quarterly review because she's never had one and she's been there since Nov. 1.
The nutritionist will be there, I was told. Maybe they can explain why they keep putting extra sauce on her tray. She did ask for soup, which she's never seen. Maybe that's as close as they can get.
I don't know who else will be there. I did ask if Joyce could attend (because after all) and was told that would be fine.
It would be a good time for her to panic, I think. She would elicit sympathy where my own panic would only be dismissed as self interest, I suspect.