tuesday... update on mom

THANK YOU to everyone for the emails asking how mom is!!

i've just returned from the hospital and have bunches of good news. my visits are twice daily-- a.m. and p.m. for about 3 hours each visit. my brother is now out of town, but he's been visiting each afternoon so mom has "enough" company during the day-- and so she can rest.

the surgery was 100% successful and (yay!) mom certainly survived. docs say every cancerous tumor was removed so we're hopeful nothing decides to return. as of now, there's no plan for chemo or radiation. they did take her neck lymph nodes out because they were "getting bumpy." it was either do it now or do it later-- they made the right choice as far as i'm concerned.

her traech prevents her from talking-- so does the enormous amount of tongue swelling... but the good news here is that she's already been traech down-sized! they put a smaller tube in this morning-- this will stay in 24-36 hours, then she'll get the final traech which she wears only 24 hours... then they close her up using tape until the hole closes completely by itself. she showed off a bit this morning by putting her finger over the traech and said "1-2-3" out loud! the biggest smile was on her face-- i had no idea this was possible-- thought talking would come only when the damn thing was removed entirely. tears came down. sheer joy!

i'm being trained on tube feeding. i must pass the test consistently before they'll let her go home and leave me in charge. it's not a difficult thing-- but it is rather scary. my greatest worry isn't my performance, but the limited number of times mom is able to take nutrition. her pre-surgery normal meal could be a half a crabcake and milk!! docs and nurses have certain nutrition stats that patients must attain-- mom's intake is below those. while they are coming around to understand she weighs only 85# and eats like a bird normally.... they're really watching to ensure she's not trying to pull a fast one on them! i can appreciate their efforts but facts are facts on mom's normal intake. she simply cannot take more than 100 ml of water and 100 ml of nutrition-- and she'll do that only once or twice a day! (by the way, their "meal" goal is 200 ml water and 200 ml nutrition, 3-4x day so you can see why they worry!) thankfully they've agreed to smaller intakes every 2-3 hours. mom has been comfortable with this and that alone is why they continue to allow us this leniency. the last thing we want is bloating, nausea and/or diahhrea.... if she has too much, that's the result.

home healthcare has been arranged but i'm pretty sure we won't need them as much as we did with prior surgeries. we'll certainly need the nurse to ensure infections don't creep in and wounds heal, but there's no post-op physical therapy or occ therapy this time around.

if all goes smoothly mom may get home by weeks end. her pups misses her but has been a good girl by behaving herself! she gets a little mad as one would expect... but so far, no accidents or mischief.

that's it in a nutshell! :)