I was delayed by getting to my parents’ house by a stubborn pot of black-bean soup. My beans just did NOT want to cook this morning, even though I soaked them overnight to speed up the process. Probably should have broken out the pressure cooker, but oh well.
I made it over there a little after noon. Dad and my aunt had both told me there was no change. Indeed, mom looked just as she did when I left her. She had more of that yellowish goop in her eye (one of my cats gets that same goop sometimes), so I grabbed a paper towel to get it out. I knew she was aware because she moved her eye around to help me out.
When I was done, I looked at her, and she looked back at me, which was more than she’d done yesterday. I told her I loved her, and she smiled at me. Actually smiled!
I noticed mom’s nose had been running too (it started that yesterday, probably because she’s let her head fall to the left side, so everything runs out the left), and it had crusted over. Now, I usually avoid putting embarrassing things in this blog, but the booger I pulled out of mom’s nose was award winning. Really. I think we should have framed it. I don’t know how that poor woman was breathing. I got her to talk, too: she said, “Ouch!” 😉 I tell you what, though, once it was gone, she was breathing quietly and normally for the first time in a long time. I’m sure that felt good to get out.
After that, she was talking a bit, too! She took two huge glasses of water. Then I asked if she wanted any food. She was silent. What about a protein shake? (That’s what dad calls the Boost drinks so she doesn’t feel so old.) “I think that would be a good idea,” she said. So she drank a whole one of those, then a little more water. She didn’t eat or drink anything yesterday, so that’s a huge difference. I’m sure she was thirsty.
I also did my best to prop up her head, which, as I said, she’d let fall to her left. I’d tried to move it yesterday, but she’d winced in pain, so I stopped. Today, I went a centimeter at a time, making sure she was okay the whole way. I figured out that the pain wasn’t in her neck, but her ear, where she’d been lying on her oxygen tube. That was easy enough to fix. I got her propped up a bit, but by the time I left around 4:15 or so, she’d already started leaning to the left again.
She had one episode during the day where she acted like something in her stomach area was in severe pain. She moved her legs a bit and winced and rubbed at the area. She wasn’t able to tell me where it hurt, what hurt, or how it hurt, so there was nothing I could really do, but I did notice that the liquid in her catheter had just turned more red. I don’t know if that’s her bladder or kidneys or something else, but I’m sure she was feeling something around that area. It passed and she said she was okay, so hopefully it was a small, fleeting thing.
Mom was alert, made eye contact, and smiled quite a bit for a good while after her Boost. She smiled at my aunt. She smiled at my dad. What a blessing her smile is. After a while, though, she drifted back into her fog and fell silent. I did get her to drink a little more water, and she was still able to look me in the eye, so that’s good. I told her I loved her and that I’d be back in the morning.
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