Playing the Role of Dopey Tonight... Tami Allemao
Pain sucks. The location and size of Tami's tumor is a double whammy. The tumor is causing bladder pressure, which makes Tami have to pee about every 30 minutes. It also is located in a spot that makes voiding cause intense pain every time she goes and immediately thereafter. The pain dissapates to a tolerable level after about 5 to 10 minutes, but it still hurts.
Tami's care team has stated that, aside form treating the cancer itself, Pain Management is their major priority. Until the tumor shrinks and is no longer causing a high degree of pain, they will continue to provide comfort in the form of an ongoing opioid prescription. Tami is on a mix of long acting morphine as a base, and short acting oxycodone for breakthrough pain.
In heavy doses opioids have some interesting side effects. Not the least of which is general dopiness. Basically, tiredness The heavy, consistent morphine load makes Tami is ready to nap at a moment's notice. Adding oxy on top of that adds a layer of mumbling, word searching, and droopy-eyed lack of focus and clarity. All in all, she spends much of her time right now in that "twilight" between awake and asleep. She does have moments of clarity, which she uses to discuss things, and to do whatever accounting work she has been to dopey to complete.
The blurring of dreams and reality certainly leads to moments of hilarity. She will be semi-concious and string together interesting collections of words that don't really make up coherent sentences. Sometimes the sentences themselves ARE coherent, but non-sensical, and just plain funny. For example, today she asked if the premade Jell-O stars were going to arrive in the mail on Monday? I asked her what she was talking about, and she told me the lady in the bathroom said they would. Still not sure what that was about, but not going to pursue. If she wants Jell-O, I will make some...
