Improvements and a good day

First of all, thank you to everyone who has been praying for my family, particularly my dad. This week he went to the neurologist appointment. Not much was discovered beyond what they already knew - he has neuropothy in his legs and part of his torso. However, the good news is that they took him off the ineffective pain pills he was taking and started him on a patch which lasts for 72 hours without the highs and lows of a pill regimen. (I don't remember the name of the drug.) At first the patch wasn't working much at all, but after the first 12 hours it was in his system and really doing its job.

Yesterday morning I answered the phone and heard "Heeeeyyyy."
"Uh, dad? Is that you?"
"Yeahhhh. How's it goiiiinnngggg?"
"Dad! Are you high??"
"Yep. As a Georgia pine. I feel grrrrreatttt."
"I bet you do. Did the meds start working or did you overdose?"
"I'm not sure. But I feel soooo goooood. I don't feel any pain at allll."
"Well, that's fantastic. But you'd better be careful. You sound really out of it."
"Oh, I'm fiiiiine. I'm outside walking around. And uncle Steve is here cutting the grass. Maybe I'll go mow too."
"No! You better not! Why don't you get something to eat and sleep it off."
"Naaaah. I'm fine."
"Can you walk a straight line?"
"Sure, I'm walking a straight line now."
"Something tells me you aren't the best judge of that."
"I feel so good I think I can come in to work."
"Maybe not today. Maybe you should have uncle Steve bring you to Grandma's house after he's finished with the yard. You should not be driving."

And so on.

Apparently, for the first few hours after the drug enters your system you're pretty loopy. Mom was concerned and almost called the Dr. but I said why not let him have a pain-free day. What's it hurt? So he rode it out. And by the time I saw him last night he wasn't loopy-headed, just feeling good without the pain. I'm so happy he finally got some relief after all these weeks of 24-hour-a-day pain. We visited for a good 2-3 hours, just being outside, walking around, looking at the flowers/herbs, playing with Elijah, and enjoying the nice weather. It was almost like before this all started. He was pulling Elijah in his toy car, using the leaf-blower, and just doing normal Grandpa type stuff. But I can tell he's still very weak. He hasn't used those muscles in 3 months, so they've atrophied. It's going to take a lot of effort to get his strength back. The good part is that if this patch continues to work well he can at least get out and do things without hurting. That will lend itself to more exercise and better muscle strength. Plus he has a much better appetite. Maybe he can even gain back some of his weight.

The one thing that's still not really improving is the heart rate and blood pressure. His resting pulse is still near 120 and bp is still VERY low. All day yesterday it was 80/68. We're still hoping he can get in to see a cardiologist next week.

Anyway, all in all yesterday was a good day. We were all in higher spirits and just concentrating on being thankful for the momentary lapse in pain.

Today he's at work. He said he's a little foggy when he tries to concentrate on something, but is working through it.