Not Doing Well

She has started to have a lot of pain in her back and I did see a lump. She is now taking Darviset, but it isn't strong enough, so they are talking about giving her morphine. She didn't feel she could shower or that she can shower anymore, so she had a sponge bath. I told her hospice could come and bathe her and she felt that might be a good idea. She did get two bouquets of flowers over the holidays which she loves. One was from Cheri and Emilee, from aunt Norma's family, the other one was from John and Jenni. They were both beautiful and very different. I took pictures, but didn't get them on the blog yet. The flowers really perked her up.

Up and Down

We were finally able to go see Lorraine Friday. Lorraine seemed so glad to see us. The weather was good so it was a good day. Yesterday I made "Thanksgiving" dinner, since we weren't here for Thanksgiving. She felt good most of the day, but by evening she was in pain and in pain most of today, so she finally took a pain killer, made a few phone calls and went to bed early. It snowed lightly today and tomorrow she is supposed to get her hair done. I hate to take her out when it's icy, because she isn't all that sturdy. We shall see.

Please send Mom Christmas Cards!

Mom loves cards and she loves all of you and would love to hear from you. She is doing ok. She has more pain more often, but feels she can control it herself. She has had the flue and a week later diarrhea, so I haven't been able to take her to see Lorraine. We don't want her to get anyone sick , or anyone getting her sick again. She really misses seeing Lorraine. We still try to get her out when she feels up to it. Usually not more than a half an hour any more. She's been careful what she eats because of not feeling well, but she still eats a lot and often. So I guess that's a good sign. She has been looking forward to a lunch with friends she used to work with on Tuesday, so I hope she will feel up to it. Her friend Eileen has small luncheons at her home once in awhile, just so mom can see friends and get out a little.

Mom had Flue

Mom had a terrible case of the flue Sunday. She was vomiting, diahrea and just miserable. I was quite worried if it was the flue or something else. It only lasted a day and she seems fine now. She is strong. We got her gaterade, to keep her electrolites up and she drank a lot of that yesterday and was careful what she ate, but it seems to have passed now. I was going to stay home from Oregon, but she seems ok and said she would feel bad if I didn't go. We have people calling and visiting with her every day, so I guess I'll go unless something happens between now and tomorrow. We will only be there a couple of days and it's only a 6 hr drive if we had to come home earlier.

Thanksgiving!

Stacey's family and possibly Josh's family are going to be at Whitnie's for Thanksgiving, so we really wanted to go to visit everyone. I have people lined up to visit mom every day and our bishop and his wife are bringing her Thanksgiving dinner. They wanted her to join them for dinner but she doesn't think that she will feel up to it. I tried to talk her into letting me get someone to stay the night here, but she wouldn't hear of it. We will only be gone a couple of days, and we will wait till the last minute to see how she is feeling. We will make a big Thanksgiving dinner here the following week end.

Flowers for Mother

My sister Dolores's son, Scott Derrickson and his family sent mother beautiful flowers. They were in such a beautiful vase, the color really doesn't do it justice.

Mother loves flowers and that was so sweet of them to think of her. She seems to be doing well other than her neck is really getting big. She says it doesn't hurt and it doesn't seem to affect her eating. I guess all we can do is keep an eye on it. If it was painful, I'm not sure she would tell me until it got unbearable.

Blanche and Les hanging out!

I'm in Arizona with Mark and Molly who just had their baby girl. Les was kind enough to stay with mom, while I am here. He will fly out for the blessing. It's hard for us to go for any length of time with mom. She is doing well, but her neck is getting really big. I don't know if it is from steroids she took for a few days a month or so ago, or if it is because of the cancer. She didn't take the steroids for long and it seemed to help her neck, that is at this point her worst problem. It's just hard for her to keep her head up for very long. She's not in pain if she lays down. Anyway, the steroids seemed to help that problem for awhile and even shrunk her stomach quite a bit. Now her stomach is getting bigger again. Who knows, as long as she's not in pain, that's the important thing.