Pump the Gas

"Pump the gas" originated purely from observation of my father's driving style as the years have gone by, however it is also a fair analogy of mom's progress: strong progress forwards, occassional stalls in place.

This past week has been wonderful, filled with physical therapy, acupuncture, another healing session, and a visit to Sharon, CT for three days to see family. It seems that her double vision and swallowing issue are improving with each passing day. Likewise, she has gained almost 5 pounds with her renewed confidence and delicious deliveries from friends and family alike. Of course, with the good comes some bad, or more of a nusence rather. Saturday she ended up in the hospital with crushing chest pain and what felt like the return of her sore throat. Two nights in the hospital and multiple tests, they chaulked it up to indigestion. For serious?

So she's back home, doing beautifully. With her white blood cell and platelet counts back in the green, she is receiving both systemic chemo and intrathecal chemo this week. That means an ENTIRE day in the hospital yesterday, as well as the better part of today, and a quick visit tomorrow for a neulasta shot.

Finding balance on a daily basis seems to be one of our greatest challanges, because when she feels great, Mom might overdue it a bit and then pay later. Even "quiet days at home" are littered with visits from physical therapists, home health aids, etc. Not to mention the phone, email, and general daily goings on in a house. Our escape to Sharon, CT was just what the doctor ordered, for more reasons than one.

Let me preface the following with sharing that whomever is on overnight "Mom Duty" has to get up and change her IV fluids once, then get up 5 hours later and disconnect her fluids, not to mention the frequent bathroom trips that come with 2 Litres of saline. While in Sharon, we weren't out and about during the days so we tried splitting the fluids over the morning and the evening. One night, perhaps after a chilled beverage or 2, Gwennie and I were elated to realize two things:

1. Mom's IV fluids were done and her port was disconnected by 10pm.

2. Dad was around, which meant if she had to get up in the middle of the night, he was all over it.

A full night's sleep is a rarity these days.

Which inspired an impromptu dance, obviously. My appologies for not being skilled in video editing, and for my father not knowing how to stop recording when the show is over.

And then an encore:

My parents dared me to put these on the blog. I don't think they thought I actually would.