Sunday, November 30, 2008

Giving Thanks

What did you give thanks for at your table this past Thanksgiving? First and foremost, we give thanks to Nancy's friends who sent mom this beautiful flower arrangement for Thanksgiving...it is something that she is enjoying a great deal, she has told me several times..."Such pretty flowers..." because I have them on the living room table and she can see them from her bedroom doorway. Thanks Bev and Kenny!
I give thanks for being able to get a little bit of scrapbooking time in for myself this past weekend.
I give thanks for my son, Jesse...for helping me so much with mom...he spent Thanksgiving with her and I was able to spend time with Jim's family and have dinner with them. It was really sweet to see Alex playing with his little cousins...it's pretty funny to me that he is the youngest kid now. When Jesse got home from work yesterday morning he took care of mom so that I could sleep for a bit, I'm grateful for that.

I give thanks for my husband who got up this morning and took care of mom so that I could sleep until 9:30, he made her breakfast and helped her get up and walk to the bathroom.

I guess you're probably wondering why I'm sleeping so much....well mom has been getting up at 5:00 and 5:30am the past few days and it's been really hard for me since I'm not used to getting so little sleep but I hope it will be better soon.

I give thanks for my son Robert who will be home in 3 weeks, I can't wait!! I think I have mentioned that a few times recently.

I give thanks that I have a warm house, food on the table and family and friends who love and support me.

Last and certainly not least I give thanks that mom is still with us 10 months after being diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. We are blessed. Mom is managing fairly well given the fact that her right leg is pretty swollen from the blood clot that formed on tuesday. She is on coumadin now and while it is nerve wracking the risk of not treating her is far worse, we certainly don't want any more blood clots, her mobility is really hard when she has the edema from the clot. I had to bring the walker back out but we are hoping that she will graduate back down to the cane at some point in the near future.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Spent the night in the ER

Mom wasn't having a good day today and I knew that something was wrong but I wasn't quite sure just what was going on. She didn't have lunch and wanted to nap in her bed which is not like her at all (she doesn't like to mess up her bed). When she woke up 3 hours later I noticed that her right leg was pretty swollen...a sign of a blood clot so I called the doctor and we headed off to the ER. Almost 7 hours later we were told she had a clot and to follow up with her doctor because they couldn't give her anticoagulants in the ER since she is a brain cancer patient. I will call her oncologist later on today.

A sort of a funny story about our night in the hospital....when we were being triaged there was a little boy brought in with peas in his nose, HAHAHAHA!! Fast forward to 3 hours later the ER doctor comes in to examine mom and wants to know about the 'foreign matter' in her nose? Sylvie and I look at each other and crack up because it's the little boy who was being triaged at the same time with the peas up his nose! You gotta love hospitals! That's why you have to make sure that you're there for a family member if they are in the hospital...mistakes can and WILL be made!

Oh and did I mention I almost went into a men's room? I didn't feel so bad when a woman who was waiting with her husband went into it!! HAHAHA! It was a long night...but mom is here with us, safe and sound with her legs elevated and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Monday, November 24, 2008

No pictures...no videos...just a simple blog post...

...to mark this day...and to remember that in just 4 weeks...just 28 days...our family will be whole and complete again with Robert coming back home after serving our country for 4 years! I could go on and on about my pride and all that stuff but all I really want to say is that I am just happy to have him home with us and it is going to be the best Christmas ever. Oh and I already have a scrapbook page all done and ready...it just needs photos!! I can't wait!!!!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

THANK YOU



What a beautiful and thoughtful gift mom received today from Joan, my sister Nancy's boss.

When I walked in the house with the box she was overwhelmed and when I opened it and read her the card she was just crying and crying...it was hard to get her to smile for a photo so I just decided to take a video of the moment to remember it by and share...so Joan...this is for you and thank you so much from the bottom of my heart and mom thanks you.

I hope that you have a wonderful and blessed holiday with your family.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

New Music Tuesday

It's tuesday and every once in a while some new music comes out that I need to get my hands on pretty quick...so thanks to Jesse being home this morning to stay with grandma I managed to get out to the store and pick up my new CD!! It's a great rock album and I have listened to it 3 times through already while cleaning the kitchen/dining room. Pick it up, you won't be sorry!! American Idol got themselves a real star in David last season!!



As for mom...well let's just say the steroids are working their magic...we joke that she's on the decadron diet...eat and eat...she closed her door just now but I caught her in the act!! HAHAHA!! Man does she love those ice cream cones with the nuts on top.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Happy Sunday!

We have been busy, mom has been getting physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy here at home this past week and she is doing well with everything. She is healing from the surgery and her hair is growing back pretty fast!!

I've been doing some scrapbooking here and there and yesterday even managed to do 5 pages, I couldn't believe it!! Thought I'd post just a few.

Tonight Jim, Alex and I are going out to dinner at Applebee's for their 2 for $20 special! Yay!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Happy Veteran's Day

Today we celebrate Veteran's Day and I have my son on my mind, his service to this country is something that makes this mother proud and I can't wait until he is home with us for good.

I haven't had the time or the energy to blog lately but just wanted to stop in and post some photos, mom in the hospital after her surgery when I took Alex to visit her, he had been asking to go and I finally took him and he was so happy to see his grandma and she was thrilled to see him too. Alex is a lucky little boy that he gets to spend so much quality time with his grandma, isn't he? These are precious times that I want to make sure we remember years down the line.

This photo is one of mom with Nancy and Paul this past sunday before they left to go home. Nancy was here for 10 days and was a huge help during mom's surgery and recovery, don't know what I would have done without her being here.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Mom is home

It's been almost a week since the surgery and mom came home yesterday and we had her favorite dinner, Boston Market...it was quite funny watching her inhale all the sweet potato casserole and then snatch Nancy's corn muffin off her plate. :-) I have a few pictures that I will post as soon as I get a chance but for now just wanted to let everyone know that she's back home with us. Have a great day on this day after our country elected a new president...amazing night to watch all of the reactions of the people.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Saturday and the 1st of November already!!

It's the 1st of the month and mom is still in the hospital and will be for a few days yet. Nancy spent most of the day here yesterday so this morning Jesse and I pitched in so that Nancy could get some rest and not have to be here so early...she's so tired. Jesse worked 10pm last night to 7am this morning and then texted me that he was coming up to see grandma before going home to sleep. He stayed with her and fed her breakfast and waited for me to get here...I'm very blessed that my boys are so loving and devoted to their grandmother.


When she's not trying to sleep she's knitting and she finished another hat for mom while we were waiting for her to come out of surgery on thursday, it's a very pretty color and I know mom is going to love it!



Took this picture of mom yesterday so that I could send it to Robert over our phones, it's hard to be far away and not know how grandma is doing but thank goodness for modern technology.


Just to update a bit...mom will have her MRI today as well as an EEG. She had a short focal seizure at about 12:45am this morning and they feel that it is caused by the surgery. Mom was aware that something was happening because her hands were trembling so she pushed the call button for the nurse and they documented it and kept a close eye on her through the night. Mom's neurologist, Dr. Spiegel, is being called to come and check on her...no sense in having the house neurologist examine her since she has her own that works right here in the hospital.

Nancy will be here in a little while and then I'm heading out for the afternoon to my friend's house to scrapbook for a little bit. Hopefully I will try to update again tonight or tomorrow.