Draining

Last night was not a good night. Mom woke up at 3 a.m. with nausea and vomiting, and the same thing happened a few hours later at 7. When he came by this morning, I asked Dr. Skibber's fellow what they were thinking in regards to her nutrition. He said that's not a concern at this moment. They're hoping this will all work itself out before they have to even think about a TPN-type thing. That just gets things complicated, etc. etc.

He did say, however, that if Mom continued to vomit, they'd have to insert that tube thing into her stomach to drain it. That's really not what we want to do because the whole point is to get things into her stomach and into her bowels. The tube would kinda work against that, but if they had to just to calm things down, they may. They haven't had to do it so far.

The key to 'waking up' the intestinal areas that haven't had to work since she's had the ileostomy (mid-May) is for her to walk and move around. Easier said than done when you feel like junk.

One of the anti-nausea medicines they gave her earlier really sedated her to the point of confusion so she's just been sleeping for the most part. It's what I would want to do. Therein lies the walking challenge.

You know, there are people who have to deal with this for years. Years. This has been draining enough on my mom just since December/Jan. I can't imagine years of it. I've never known people with such resolve. It's pretty amazing. I have a little friend, Anya (click on her name), who was diagnosed with ALL, the most common type of children's cancer, the summer of 07. She was only 4. She and her family have been dealing with this for over a year, and they still have at least another year of treatment. It's painful enough watching your mom suffer with this; I can't even begin to imagine the agony of watching your child go through this. Not just that, but Anya has a little sister and brother who also have to deal with the effects of it all. It's a lot, and if affects everyone. Let me say, though, that my friends, Anna & Israel have the same hope I have and stand on that. No, it doesn't necessarily make things easier, but it brings us comfort when nothing else does.