Glad yesterday is over!

Yesterday was a very difficult day for Amy. She was in a cycle that she needed to break out of - her epidural medication caused nausea, which made it nearly impossible for her to eat. In order to transition her to oral pain medication, which would decrease her nausea, she had to eat something so she could take the pills. She tried eating a few spoons of broth in the morning, but threw up. So the nurse decided to just stop the epidural medication and lessen the nausea enough to enable Amy to eat some crackers. That meant that she experienced the pain sensations in her chest that had been blocked by the epidural. Thankfully, after a long day of alternating with pain and pressure in her chest, and nausea, she made it off the epidural completely and onto oral pain medication! Whew! She still receives Valium through her I.V. when the pressure is too intense in her chest, but overall she is very much improved. Last night she sat on the edge of the bed with her feet hanging over the edge for about 15 minutes, and that was a victory. Today she has much work in store: sitting up in bed again, moving to a chair and sitting in it for a while, eventually walking sometime today, eating, and more.
She had quite a lot of pain about an hour ago (7 on a scale of 10) and has received some pain meds. We will attempt to get her out of bed soon.