Update on Mom

Mom is still at the hospital; she was moved to the Palliative Care floor where there is a tremendous team of caring medical staff and a quieter atmosphere than the surgical/trauma floor she was previously on. The doctors are trying to make her more comfortable and manage her symptoms so she can enter into a hospice program, either at a hospice residence or at Mom and Dad's home.  

To ease some of the pain and pressure, the doctors inserted a catheter that will be able to easily drain on a regular basis the fluid created by the tumors in abdomen. Due to the bowel obstruction, for the past two weeks Mom had an NG tube placed in her nose to drain her stomach and the tube was becoming very uncomfortable. The plan is that she will undergo one more procedure to insert a gastric drain which will have the same effect as the NG tube draining her stomach. This will allow Mom to have the comfort of drinking tea, broth, water and juice without the build up of pressure in her stomach and without the tube in her nose. This procedure is slated for Monday.

We had two really low days in the hospital last week. One day she was in a great deal of pain, and the following day she was very, very lethargic and not too responsive. The next morning when I went to her room before daybreak I was surprised to find her awake. I could immediately see she was feeling much better. She had another delightful nurse that morning and mom told her all about her sand dollar collection and broke open a sand dollar we had at the hospital to show the nurse the doves inside. In the company and embrace of her sisters, Mom cried about how fast things seem to be happening. She talked to Dad and us later that day, a heart-felt and heart-breaking talk, but it was good for all of us to have that talk. She was high spirits yesterday, feeling like she had a good day.

We will let you know if there are any other big changes and when she gets discharged from the hospital.  If the gastric drain is placed on Monday, I would think the earliest would be Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone for their blog comments, texts and emails. We read them to Mom all the time.  There has been a bit of delay with mail since mailing getting forwarded to Florida is now getting forwarded back to RI, and is on hold at the Rhode Island post office.