Today started out difficult, but Mom really turned a corner in the afternoon and we got to see some of the old sparkle.
I spent the night with her last night and she took half an oxycodon and fell asleep at 8pm. She slept an entire 8 hours until she finally needed to make a trip to the bathroom. But when she woke up at 4am, she was clearly uncomfortable and even a little confused (she offered me a latte and then requested soup). But she went right back to sleep after the bathroom and the disorientation lifted by morning. She also had a dry cough that seemed to cause her discomfort when she woke up, but she didn't cough at all while sleeping. Once we had both woken up this morning, I went to the hallway beverage station to make her some tea and ran into both Dr. H and our fabulous NP. They asked how Mom was and I told them everything. Our NP came in a little bit later to check on Mom and ask her how she was feeling. It turns out, Mom has an albuterol inhaler that we all forgot about-two puffs on that baby this morning and the cough is completely gone. NP also ordered a chest x ray to see if they could see any developments since last week that could be causing the discomfort, cough or pain. She also mentioned that the confusion could possibly be due to a liver problem and be caused by a build up of ammonia and if it continues or gets worse, they'll check those levels. I suggested that the oxycodon could be the cause and she agreed that was a possibility, too.
Mom slept a lot this morning; she would be awake for an hour, then sleep for two. She barely ate any lunch. But by mid afternoon, she was determined to do physical therapy and she walked and rode the bike. Now, she's still extremely weak, but her attitude had shifted: she wanted to walk, she kept pushing to go more, she joked around with her visitors...she was the same Flynne. She hadn't been herself for the past few days.
The chest x ray results showed the beginning stages of pneumonia, so she started an antibiotic for that this evening.
This afternoon Mom finally got to feel the Pea moving around. She wasn't kicking, so it wasn't the hard solid knocks against my belly; it was more of her shifting positions. Mom could feel her swimming around, shifting her head position, and fluttering. Pretty exciting.
One of Mom's oldest friends called today and we were talking about how Mom is doing and if her friend should plan a trip to see her soon. I honestly replied that she's consistently beaten the odds and that she has bounced back from almost every obstacle. But I really don't know how many more bounces back she has in her.
Clearly, I don't. Maybe she has this one more.
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