No sleep... again

Last night I went to Home Depot and walked around for like half an hour looking for something that would inspire me towards a more efficient lip-holder than half a cork. I finally got a pack of shims, thinking I’d make something that looks like a capital ‘I’ and the platforms at the top and bottom would hold her lips open, but I would up with some foamy knee pads which I cut a strip off of and sewed it into a ‘V’ shape, the wider end fits between her lips and isn’t so hard that it bothers her. She can also move her mouth easier with it in, her twitching doesn’t move it around or knock it out, and she can still breathe. I’m thinking I might also try to make a small square that fits in her loose-lip area and exposes her teeth, maybe like an inch and a half square, and hopefully that will stay in all night and we can finally all sleep, but I have a feeling this isn’t possible. I’m getting really worried about whets going to happen when she’s in pain and can’t tolerate the lip prop. I just hope the tumor has shrunk enough by then that she can breathe out of her nose and I can give her knock out medicine without worrying.

Honey’s getting really good at telling us when she needs help and much more tolerant of us messing with her mouth than she has ever been. If anyone got touchy with her mouth she used to put her eyes down and lower her ears politely saying ‘I’m not supposed to have human parts in my mouth, and you’re putting them there and I don’t know what to do except move away’ and then leave, but now its like ‘ok guys someone come fix this, I cant breathe’ last night was apparently my night for rearranging the mouth prop when it needed it, every hour or two, and she started out near my feet at like 12 when we went to bed and wound up on my pillow at 6:40 when I adjusted it for the last time. We spent the last hour before my alarm went off literally three inches apart, which actually worked out because I could feel her breath instead of listening for it. Thing is it’s not a set formula, like this position and this pillow. I’m not sure why but it changes every time and I have to figure out the magic combination, usually a mixture of two or three pillows, the comforter and both throws. She’ll be ok for about four minutes then stop breathing when she actually falls asleep, so you have to stay really still and watch to see if the position is going to work when she’s totally relaxed. Then two hours later the position gets uncomfortable or she kicks her lip prop out and we start all over. It’s quite special.