Mary Lee Coombs

Monday afternoon Nancy Petersons and I were with Mary Lee for about 90 minutes. Nancy had been told by a nurse that Mary Lee's condition had significantly changed since Saturday. She is experiencing periods of agitation and distress, and reduced ability to communicate. This morning (Monday) Mary Lee had been very agitated, and that she had been given some drugs to calm her: Ativan, a fairly mild and commonly prescribed drug for anxiety and insomnia, and Haldol, a very strong drug usually reserved for extremely agitated people. My understanding is that Haldol can profoundly "flatten" emotions, which may make it even harder for us to connect with Mary Lee. It was unclear to me whether the agitation was a symptom of the illness, or her extreme frustration with her situation.

Mary Lee remained very soundly asleep during our visit. Even when the fire alarm went off, she didn't stir.

While we were there, a doctor came by and he was very open in answering our questions and discussing Mary Lee's prognosis with us. He said we can likely expect her condition to deteriorate rapidly. She may show a variety of behavioural changes including loss of memory and lucidity. He said that the agitation could be a result of her condition impacting the emotional control and response portion of her brain. He said she may be in the final weeks, or week, of her life.

[Nancy and Steve co-authored this entry]