Friday September 6

Today marked mom's 4th radiation treatment.  She will have the last of the scheduled treatments on Monday and has a follow up appointment with the oncologist on Tuesday to discuss next steps.

As for how she is holding up, well there's a lot of positive this week which is lovely to be experiencing. When we speak on the phone the volume & quality of her voice are more "her".  She seems to be more energetic; as in she doesn't just seem to want to sleep all the time (she's not running marathons anytime soon though). She's been a bit less queasy and is eating a tad better.  For lunch today I watched her eat a beautiful, lovingly made soup from Phyllis with absolute delight.  It's nice to see her delighted by anything that falls under the category of food these days.  She is also still really enjoying the fresh carrot, celery, wheat grass juice that Julia or I make for her daily.  It may be that being off the antibiotics is helping to perk her up and handle food a bit better.  She has also said that she thinks she might be able to breathe a bit deeper now, which would more likely be due to the radiation.

So for now, we continue in this waiting game to see what the next step will be.  For now we know that she needs to finish up the current treatment and follow up with the oncologist. Next steps beyond Tuesday are unknown at the moment.

In the meantime, the pragmatic and beautifully spirited woman that my mother is, she has embarked on a little entrepreneurial venture from the hospital.  She is putting the word out there into the community about the sets of "Earthwyse Reflection Cards" that she has to offer and some of her paintings. She would like to sell them as a means of raising some money to help pay for her upcoming vitamin C IV treatments.  The usual asking price for the card sets is $20.00, although any contributions larger than that would be gladly accepted.  She is asking $200 per painting as each painting sold at this price will cover one of the treatments she will undergo. Please feel free to spread the word!

For more information about the cards & to view some of her paintings, please feel free to swing on over to her website at the following link (note that a couple of the paintings are already spoken for).  Information about the cards can be found under the "offerings" tab.

http://www.earthwyse.ca/

Happy Friday everyone and have a wonderful week end!

Ileana

Quick Update

I haven't actually seen mom today, but have spoken to her a couple of times.

She had her second radiation therapy this morning at 10:30.  This one was even faster than yesterday as they didn't need to re-draw lines on her chest.  To date she is not feeling any particular side effects from the treatments.  For now this is a relief and we continue to hope for the same in the coming days.

She is completely off the antibiotics now and seems to be feeling a bit better. She managed to eat a bit more today, although it is slow progress on this front. No matter, progress is progress and I was thrilled to hear that she got a some more protein into her today.  In addition, her voice sounded really good to me today. 

She's still tiered and weak, but boy does she have a beautiful, radiant, and strong spirit.  That's my mama & I'm super, duper proud of her.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support.  It is coming to us in various ways and it is all extremely appreciated.  I hope you don't all tire of hearing me thank everyone, but I could never thank everyone enough and so I'm sorry to say, but I will likely be a bit of a broken record in that way:)

Ileana

Visitors

This will just be a brief post for now.

I've received several requests about whether or not mom is up for a visit.  Although the sentiment means an awful lot to her, at the moment she is very tiered and quite week resulting in not feeling up for many visitors.

Please know that your thoughtfulness is really amazing and I will post again on the blog if/when a time comes that she is open to seeing more people.

Ileana

Tuesday September 3 - Post Radiation Therapy Session #1

Upon arrival at the hospital today to accompany mom for her first treatment, I found her a bit more energetic than over the week end.  That said, she is still having issues with appetite & queasiness. She said that she had spoken with the floor doctor earlier who said that he would take her off of the antibiotics she's been on (I believe since she was admitted - 2 wks ago).  In addition, there was one medication that she was on to help her with her queasiness which may actually be hindering her appetite.  He will wean her off this medication.  With any luck, these two changes in her medications will help her to feel a bit better energy & appetite/queasiness wise.

At roughly 2 PM the porter brought mom down to the radiation clinic (I tagged along).  Her time with the technician was very short; about 20 minutes.  After that we spoke with another technician to ask what ever questions we had about the possible side effects & their management, as well as what we could expect in the coming days.  The treatment itself was fairly easy for mom with the exception of the challenge of having to lie flat on her back, stay as still as possible, and not cough for the duration of the treatment.

They are currently, and for the next 5 days, treating her on her chest at the location of the tumor in her lungs.  There is the possibility that following this five days, the oncologist may suggest continuing with some sessions of radiation on her neck at the location of another tumor or lesion there.  We will know more about that in the coming days.

For now the hope is that the side effects are not too difficult.  She may experience tieredness, some coughing, and possibly some additional shortness of breath in the short term. At any rate, so far so good and we shall see how she does in the coming days.

I'd like to thank everyone for the continued well wishes, thoughts, prayers, healing vibes being sent her way.  Mom even received mail in the hospital today:)

I'd also like to send out a quick shout out of thanks to Dana & Sheila who have lovingly provided my family with meals to help out in this overwhelming time! 

Ileana

Tuesday September 3 - Noon

I'm on my way to the hospital to provide mom with moral support for her first radiation treatment.  Here we come "take action" phase.

I will update the blog later to let you all know how the treatment went and how she dealt with it.

Ileana

The past two days have been much more mellow.  Mom is feeling very weak and having a hard time getting much food into her.

She is experiencing mixed feelings about the radiation therapy that will start tomorrow.  On the one hand, we are all looking forward to moving from a "waiting around" phase of this journey to a "take action" phase.  On the other hand, she is somewhat apprehensive about how she will do with the treatment.

Mom is feeling too tiered for many visitors at the moment, but the well wishes, thoughts, prayers, and healing energy that is coming from our community of friends and family continues to be extremely appreciated.  Even if you've already sent messages for us to put in her binder, don't hesitate to send more thoughts if they come to you.  She could never get too many:)

See you all on the other side of day 1 of radiation.

Ileana

Saturday August 31

Today Julia & I visited mom for a couple of hours. She is so blessed to have a window sill lined with beautiful bouquets of flowers from the wonderful people in her (our) life.  She is also very touched by the messages that people have been sending us and that we have been adding to her special binder at the hospital.... Please keep them coming; it is very helpful for all of us to feel the support around us.

We had the pleasure of taking her outside for some fresh air and to let her touch her bare feet to the grass & ground.  It was a bit of a short time outside as some of the odours were bothering her. She also took another walk with me down the hallway near her room. So she is doing her best to move around, but her breathing continues to be a huge challenge for her.  She also seemed to need much rest in the past two days after a busy week.

As always, her spirits are pretty good!