moving right along

We cannot thank you enough for all of your kind notes. My mum finds them really sustaining, and keeps saying, "we know such nice people!" They are greatly appreciated, and we are all truly touched.

The surgeon was back this morning, bringing with him a hand-written list of the medications mum will be on when she goes home. He stayed for at least 20 minutes answering our pages of questions. He is such a nice man, on top of being an excellent surgeon!

Mum and I have also been walking. We had quite a long walk this morning; we did five laps around the floor, three with mum using her IV pole to support her bad shoulder and two completely unsupported. She was walking much faster and more confidently than yesterday, taking longer strides without hesitation. She says she feels worse, but my working hypothesis is that she is just less drugged and more aware. She seems much more awake today than she did when we walked yesterday.

Then the two of us had a lovely little rest in our quiet corner room.

We are still working on the pain control; last night was bad and mum ended up needing morphine again. She is trying so hard to get off the drip, but in the end waited too long, so her blood pressure went up and the pain got out of control. Today, we're trying a higher dose of pain pills and so far that's going well, but the worst pain problems all seem to happen in the night. We may be able to take her home this afternoon, but we're certainly not going to try to leave if the pain isn't under control, and one more night in the hospital might be wise.

The occupational therapist came and worked with mum's bad shoulder and taught me what exercises we should be doing. She still has limited shoulder mobility, but it is clearly much better than yesterday, both her ability to control her arm movement and the overall range of movement with assistance from someone else.

I also got to see the MRI picture of the tumor, and it was huge! It's one thing to know it was big and another thing entirely to see that up at the top of her brain, this thing had pushed its way across almost to the midline.

Mum is still having a low-level headache, but (for the moment) it is less painful than the chronic headache she was having all summer, so we're pretty happy about that.

We are so appreciative of the continued support from all of you. It means more to us than I can tell you.