As Maria is not conscious she has not taken in any food or liquid for some time. As the steroids have introduced a lot of fluid and fat deposits, she can survive like this for some time. We moisten her mouth and lips from time-to-time. The biggest challenge has been to try and identify when she is in pain. She had a number of breakthroughs through the day, so I'm hopeful we have worked it out.
Maria's anticonvulsant medication is only available in tablet form. As a substitute they have now connected a second syringe driver containing Clonazepam. While this will hopefully counter the possibility of seizures, it will sedate her even further. These are the tricky balancing acts that are discussed on a daily basis. The staff at the Hospice continue to be a huge blessing to us and treat us all with amazing respect, compassion and professionalism.
Janelle headed back to the Blue Mtns after visiting the kids at home. She has blessed us again, leaving her dear little boy behind at short notice to spend time with us.
Effie took over later in the afternoon. I left after we had a lengthy chat.
We had a few friends coming through for visits throughout the day. There will be a few additional visitors tonight while Effie is there.
It's nice to be back with the kids, but hard to be far from Maria. As I've said to so many people of late, we travelled this journey side-by-side over almost 11 months and I'd hate not to be there when the time comes.
