Queit Days

The new phase is a peaceful one for Mom, for the most part. She sleeps most days for long hours and she really only eats one meal a day. She will often have a few bites of fruit with her evening meds, but she really doesn’t eat more than a few bites before she puts her hand up to signal no more. More and more beloved flavors now cause her to shudder and say "no more" as her sense of taste is starting to change. That was something for which Hospice had warned us to be on the watch.  She is also having a harder time swallowing liquids, but thicker fluids like pudding or oatmeal, seem to still be easy for her to swallow.

The edema in her arm is still there and it increases if we leave her arm down for too long, but she is uncomfortable with it up for too long as well, so we are juggling that balance. We are still battling constipation, but when she eats, and especially, drinks so little it’s difficult to keep things moving quickly enough to allow for comfortable bowels movements. I understand that this is often a problem at this stage in life, but we are working hard to minimize it for Mom.

There isn’t a lot to tell at this point. The Doctor has officially confirmed that she no longer has to take any medications other than those for comfort and ease. She is seeing “the Man” again, now. She often calls me by my dad’s name when she first wakes up and looks over to his chair where I am sitting. I’m good with that. We have not had any semi coma days for almost two weeks. I know that they will come on more frequently as time moves on, but for now we have cheerful smiles when she wakes and a sense of humor still lingers in her eyes.