1.20.11

AYNSLEY:
It turns out Mom may get snookered sooner than later. But not beer, folks. Medical marijuana. Though she's trying really hard to eat (tonight I called in the middle of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia time), her appetite still isn't where the doctors want it. And this morning she had a bout of nausea that prevented her from doing physical therapy. I think it's the nausea that tipped the scale in favor of the marijuana-they don't want that to get worse and she needs to be eating more than she is. Don't misunderstand-she's dramatically increased her calories this week, but it's still on the low end and she has a lot of healing to do. So...pot time!

Mom also started complaining that her ears bother her on and off. She said it's not her hearing, it feels more like an allergy. We're hoping to get an ear doctor to check this out tomorrow. And we're hoping this isn't another autoimmune response.

Mom told me that physical therapy didn't happen because she was too exhausted from a morning with no breaks-radiation, then other medical interruptions, then social interruptions, then PT. I also suggested that maybe yesterday's PT, OT and other exercise sessions could have also played a role with her fatigue. But we really don't know why today was so much harder. Ross is going to assess with her tonight and see if we need to be more proactive about scheduling social visits-these seem to be the only factor we can sort of control. Though she really does love the social visits...today another dear friend arrived from Illinois, and Mom is really excited to have her there.

Both her oncologist and the hospitalist are advocating for her to be transferred to another medical center in Seattle instead of a nursing or rehab facility. We are all hoping for this! We don't want to have to transport her for chemotherapy twice a week-sitting up is exhausting and riding in a car would be really uncomfortable. And then considering how hard it would be to get out of the car and walk back to her room after chemo...yuk, we don't want to put her through that.

Tomorrow I have the day off from work and will be combing New York City for corned beef, pickles, rye bread and bagels. Sounds like I'll need to double my initial estimate if she starts on her new treatment soon!