Post #16: The Up/Down Rhythm Continues

Hello dear friends and family,

Today was decidedly mixed with pluses and minuses. First off, she was awake and alert early on and unbeknownst to me, while I was doing my morning ablutions, she walked into the kitchen. Unfortunately, that was too much effort and she returned to bed immediately. She was hungry though and managed to eat 1/2 cup of grits with butter substitute and a 1/2 piece of toast also with butter substitute.

However, the shortness of breath, dizziness, feeling like she is going to pass out have continued and occur upon very slight exertion. She also is experiencing a very gurgly, rumbling stomach accompanied by pain in the abdominal area. She took two aspirin around 11:30 this morning as she wants to see if she can take less of the morphine drops. I was then astounded by her asking for, and I prepared, 1/2 of a bacon, lettuce, tomato and fried egg sandwich on toast with a little mayo. She ate the whole thing except for a couple corners of the toast. This is the most she's eaten at one sitting in quite some time. She has also not had problems with constipation. This good news is tempered by the fact that when she eats, she feels as though it lands in or above her stomach but doesn't go any further. She is also having sensations of reflux from time to time.

Today Mother stayed in bed but was quite active. She is engaged in a "secret project" as a surprise for John. But I feel that the added activity may have tired her a bit too much. Unfortunately, around 3:30 p.m. she had one episode of nausea and vomiting, basically undoing the earlier apparent progress. In sum, she has probably tried to eat too much solid food too soon. So it's back to a liquid and soft food diet for the time being and no aspirin as it probably irritated her stomach too much. The chemo is not kind to the stomach lining, so for the time being, there will be no more aspirin for her. Around 5:00 p.m. she requested morphine drops, her first of the day. The pain she is experiencing today is a dull ache in her abdominal area, primarily on the right side and extending upward under the ribs on the right side.

Since 5:00, she slept a little, drank a little tea and tried a little chicken soup broth. On a cheerier note, we once again stayed up watching old movies. Like last night, we caught the end of the first movie, "My Favorite Wife" starring Irene Dunne and then watched the entire second movie "Too Many Husbands" starring Jean Arthur, Melvyn Douglas and Fred MacMurray. It was quite funny and Mother enjoyed it, although I do not think she was very comfortable. After the movie she felt hungry and ate three slices of pear with a little cottage cheese before going to sleep for the night.

I called the oncologist's office early today, but he won't be in until tomorrow. I left a few details about Anita's symptoms with his assistant who informed me that he will call me back most likely tomorrow evening after he has finished with his patients. The most distressing symptoms to Anita are the shortness of breath and inability to exert herself in any way. Hopefully, we will get some answers as to why she is experiencing these as well as some remedies for same.

Well, it's time for me to get some sleep as well. I didn't meet my goal of getting this posting out earlier tonight. It's looking like that may hold true for a few nights as Mother appears to be enjoying watching movies together.

Melissa