a bad night

It’s hard to believe that just 24 hours ago, mom was enjoying visits from Mary Allen and a whole crew of friends from EPU. Although it wasn’t easy for her, mom definitely held up her end of the conversations and shared a few laughs with her friends yesterday.

Things began to change late last night. Mom was not nearly as communicative and became increasingly unsteady on her feet.

By around 5AM, we knew that something was not right.

The cancer has been kind of lurking around like a stalker lately – slow moving, making its presence known than slipping away and lying low for a while. For me, this morning felt like the stalker had suddenly become emboldened. In the light of day, it was there and would not relent, no matter what we tried.

Although I can usually set aside my feelings and reactions to be dealt with later, seeing my mom so uncomfortable started to get to me.

Fortunately, dad was a soldier – he carried us all through until the “backup team” could arrive. So far we’ve had two visits from the hospice team this morning – and regardless of the hour, they always bring their “game faces”.

Mom has a Foley catheter now, and we are doing everything else that we can to make her as comfortable as possible. The catheter – just like morphine and the wheelchair – was one of those markers that we knew would become a part of mom’s care at some point, but tried to put-off for as long as possible.

Mom’s voice has become so soft that when she does speak, it’s often impossible to understand her words. As we work with the hospice team to try to relieve some of her discomfort, we hope that will change very soon.

Sorry to share this “low note” – I promise to post an update as soon as mom’s feeling a little better.

Howard Joseph