This morning we had our first visit from a palliative care nurse.  We got set up with the Visiting Nurse Association for oversight of the lung-draining process, which continues every other day for now.  Then we found out that the VNA also has a palliative care program so we signed up for it. Now we have someone who can help us investigate various pain-relief options and also set me up with a visiting occupational or physical therapist who can help with my left hand. As part of this they offer something called anodyne therapy which I had never heard of, but which looks like it might help my hand pain. Anybody ever had any experience with this kind of treatment? It seems to work by increasing circulation.

She also gave me yet another end-of-life document to fill out: a MOLST or Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. I thought all my work on the Five Wishes document was all I needed to do, but apparently not.  So I will tackle that eventually.

The foot and leg edema that was an unfortunate gift of my last hospital stay is getting better slowly. My right leg and foot are pretty much all better and that leg feels stronger lately too.  My left leg is no longer swollen but my left foot is still kind of a puffy mess.  Yesterday when we went to the office of the compression-garment expert, I not only got a compression glove for my left-hand–to address the edema in my fingers as well as protect that hand from accidental touching–but we also asked her advice on the foot edema. We have been getting different stories from different semi-experts about what might help besides elevation and eating lots of protein. She suggested a compression stocking and explained why there’s no such thing as a compression sock. She had some samples, so now I have a pair of nice black light-compression knee-high socks and I think wearing one is already helping the foot a little bit.

Eric goes to California on Sunday for a week and my mom comes Sunday night for the duration. I am lucky to have so many retired and self-employed people in my family who can come visit when it’s needed!