Overnighter in the hospital

So mom spent the night in the hospital last night as a precaution after her chemo. It was an interesting night to say the least. To help avoid the reaction she had last time they gave her a dose of Benadryl and to help with anxiety they gave Ativan (Lorazepam). Well...the two combined, as my mom predicted, had some interesting effects on her. It's hard to put into words and you can count on a video next time (with mom's approval of course). She was babbling like she was drunk for hours on end and making absolutely no sense. At first it was a little extreme and Lexi was even a little scared and left pretty upset. By the time her infusion was done the affects were wearing off a little but there was certainly still some lingering loopyness (not a word, I know). Thankfully when Lexi came back later that night she was a little more with it. The three of us sat around laughing about how odd some of the stuff was that was coming out of her mouth. She would nod off and start waving around with her hands, calling the dog, looking for her sewing kit. Lexi was laughing so hard her stomach was starting to hurt. Mom would wake back up and start to laugh at herself and at Lex laughing. It was really pretty funny. Next time there will be video.

I spent the night in the room with her because she really needed constant monitoring just in case. She was up and down about every 20 minutes through most of the night and would wake up very confused. Her legs were very weak and I was worried about her having a fall and breaking something. She doesn't need that now. The nurse gave her another Ativan later in the night and she finally got a couple hours sleep. The night was uneventful for the most part and her care in the hospital, as always was wonderful. We left first thing in the morning.

Day at the hospital

Mom is at the hospital today to receive her chemo since last time she had complications. As I wrote before, the last time she had this chemo administered, when she came home she had some swelling in her mouth and a difficult time breathing. So, the doctors decided to keep her in the hospital this time while she gets her chemo. She may stay overnight for monitoring. I'll update when we have more info.

Quick update

As promised I am trying to make more regular updates even if they are small/short.

I walked into the house today on my way home from work to say hi to mom and I could see on her face that she was having a great day. I asked her how she was feeling and she exclaimed "Awesome!" It has been a long time since I have seen her like that. She told me that she has been scarfing down food too! This is great news if even only temporarily. She showed me the back of truffles, and plate full of cookies, and said she was going to go buy a pound of See's candy. It really doesn't matter what she eats as long as she is getting the calories. I think she was joking about the See's. She did eat a big dinner, the largest I've seen in a very long time.

Apparently, as she explained to me, there is about a ten day window between her IV chemo treatment when she feels good and has an appetite. She said she is enjoying that time right now. She seemed like a different person today, it was amazing and uplifting to see.

Update

First off I have to apologize to all of you out there who have been anxiously waiting for updates on mom. I'm making an attempt to update more often starting today. The updates may be short and not filled with a ton of information but I'll do what I can to make them happen a little more often.

She's been fairly stable in all areas for the most part. Mom is still working two days a week most weeks, which I think she enjoys and it's great that she's getting out of the house for a day. Her weight loss seems to have stabilized for now and she's been eating better in recent days. Still not enough for the weight gain she needs but maybe enough to slow down the loss. She is on a new chemo drug which is both oral and IV. It's supposed to work well on pancreatic cancer so we have our fingers crossed. I wrote about these drugs here

Her spirits seem to be doing pretty well too. Matt is off to Azuza Pacific for school and Lexi has started her Junior year at H.S.. Jake is back home now. Seems like life is just moving along. There really isn't a whole lot of news. I'll do my best to keep up on this a bit better from now on.