Our peaceful night routine

As bedtime approached Deb said she was ready for her meds. We have a spreadsheet that we check off meds with a date/time.Otherwise we'd lose control of them.

So, she took her pills, then I helped her apply pain patches on her back where the worst hurts were. These medicated patches are about 5" x 8" and have sticky on them. They provide about 12 hours medication. She also has smaller patches supplying much stronger 72 hour painkillers.

Then, a final trip to the bathroom, getting dressed in her bedclothes, brushing her teeth. They have become super-sensitive and we had to get a milder toothpaste. I suspect that the teeth are subject to the same abuse as her bones by this cancer.

One nightly ritual is a discussion of how to configure the hospital bed for each night. The triangular pillow has started hurting in the small of her back,so we talked over our options and decided to try using 3 normal pillows in a new stack with her knees elevated. She wanted to give it a try even though no position is really comfortable: we try to choose the least worst.

Then we get covers arranged with a blanket she can reach in the dark. A small spill-proof water bottle is placed next to a baggie with the middle-of-the-night and early-morning meds.There is a small LED flashlight clipped to the bed.

When the physical arrangements were settled then we started the iPod with our friend Lisa's soft piano melodies playing classic hymns we love. The lighted clock was scooted into a spot where she could see it. The we shared prayer requests, Deb read a short portion of scripture, and we prayed for each other. A gentle kiss on the forehead, a mutual 'I love you', lights off, and now she's asleeep and I have a few minutes to gather laundry, load the dishwasher,write this blog, and think about what tomorrow will bring.

Overall, the goal is a peaceful, quiet simple existence. Not much excitement. Just about no TV, especially the hard-charging aggressive news folks. Tonight we watched about :30 minutes of the movie Annie. We love simple plots, good vs. evil, and good guys that win. I especially love old musicals while Deb is a shoot-em-up fan. I always thought our tastes were odd: she, the kindly little teacher who likes blood and guts; me, the combat-ready pilot ready to go drop a bomb but having such simple childlike movie and musical tastes and avoiding blood at all costs. Go figure?