1.25.11

AYNSLEY:

I'm sitting at Mom's bedside, listening to Ross and Mom do qi gong. Ross is harnessing the ball of energy between his hands, focusing that energy and bringing it over Mom's head and right in front of her eyes. We are all setting our intentions for a healthy, whole body to return to her. Regaining eyesight would be a major bonus. Ross was able to focus a ton of energy-Mom was surprised by how much heat he was able to conjure between his hands and really felt his hands along her head and face.

Today was Mom's last radiation oncology treatment. I know I have written about the radiation oncology team before, but I have to reiterate: they are amazing. When I went with my parents for treatment yesterday, not one but 4 nurses and technicians hugged me warmly and welcomed me back to Seattle, saying they missed me. Today, two of the techs who weren't there yesterday were equally excited to see me; I got hugs from everyone, even the oncologist. As I said in a previous post, thank you notes are a long way off, but I couldn't arrive at today's final treatment without something, so I packed a gift bag with delicious chocolate and wrote out a thank you letter on notebook paper; I will send a proper gift this week. As soon as I presented the little gift, one of the techs gave us a card-when I opened it later, it was a beautiful hand written get well card. Yes, that's right, the radiation oncology team gave Mom a gift on her last day. I think this speaks to both parties-obviously, Mom has made quite an impression and obviously they are a very special team of healers. I feel so fortunate that we've been able to work with them.

We also said goodbye to out favorite doctor, Dr. S today. She is taking the next week off and we'll be moving facilities before she gets back. My dad was very sorry he wasn't here to say goodbye and actually Gary was, too. (Gary has already decided that in the movie version of this experience, Dr. S will be played by Laura Linney-any ideas on who will play Mom??)

The transfusion went very well and Mom was feeling better today. She had a fabulous physical therapy session and continues to walk more each day. She got a good solid nap in the morning and another one during the State of the Union. I'm spending the night tonight and am looking forward to more mother-daughter time. It's been really nice being back this trip and having my dad and Ross at work and school-I get a lot of one on one time.

On the food side of things, we had a cole slaw emergency today. Lunch was more corned beef and rye bread, but Mom wanted cole slaw with it. It is apparently very difficult to find cole slaw in Bellevue. The hospital didn't have it, so I sent out a text plea to people I thought might be coming to the hospital today. My uncle had to ask every single person who works at Whole Foods before he found some behind the pizza counter and another friend went to three stores before she was able to get it. But their hard work paid off: Mom thoroughly enjoyed the coleslaw/corned beef mix and ate a very large lunch. We also found a stash of cream soda that had been dropped off, which hit the spot perfectly! Thank you SO much to everyone who contributes to Mom eating as well as she is-it was quite astounding how many people are willing to cook, bake, stop at every grocery store, etc to help make her well. Also-D & E: the beets were amazing tonight. You are amazing. We can't thank you enough!

We started working on the Single Ladies choreography today-we'll keep you posted on how the dance progressing and if we have anything worth showing off on Sunday at the birthday party.