Tonight is my mom’s rosary. I know some people who are attending are non-Catholics and may never have attended a rosary. We pray the rosary aloud, led by a Deacon. Here is some background, if you are interested in understanding it. As with all things, no one is required to recite the prayers or do […]
Understanding the rosary Read More »
No chemo tomorrow. Instead, mom starts next Tuesday with a drug called Alimta. Apparently, it is quite well tolerated. She’ll take that once and then again three weeks later. Then we’ll see. Perhaps another CT scan?
I was struck by this image of children in PAKISTAN mourning for our lost children. The phrase “v feel ur pain as u would feel our pain” is particularly poignant given the suffering that children in that country feel on a regular basis.
A compelling image Read More »
My Facebook friends are likely sick of my gun control posts, so I’m turning here instead. The NRA today held their much-anticipated news conference, just one week after the slaughter of innocents in Connecticut (almost to the hour). Aside from the weird, paranoid, stream-of-consciousness rant (“..Add another hurricane, terrorist attack, or some other natural of
We visited with the oncologist today. He seemed genuinely surprised that my mother is pain-free with no pain medicine. She also has virtually no nausea, except a little queasiness the day after chemo, which is managed with ativan. Now the primary issue is getting her weight up. She’s down to 95 pounds, very small even
Knocking down the bowling pins Read More »
It’s official. I picked up my Portuguese National ID card today at the consulate. Hurray!
Eu sou uma Portuguêsa. Read More »
Mom was discharged yesterday, and had a pretty good night. She sounds good, feels good. Back to chemo on Friday.
I am comfortable in hospitals. I practically grew up in them, between my family’s too-frequent hospitalizations and my mother working in one for over a decade. As a kid, I knew the local hospital’s phone number by heart——I was to call my mother at work as soon as I walked in the door after school.
Despite my genetic influence to the contrary, I am an optimist. Being a planner and a dreamer requires a hopefulness and confidence about the future. What I have discovered over the last six months is that there is a huge risk to being an optimist——the bitter disappointment when it simply doesn’t work out. We’ve had
Mom has continued to complain about gut pain, and has resisted loading up a second fentanyl patch even though the doctor instructed her to do so if the pain persisted. She also continues to disbelieve her doctor’s assertion that the pain is caused by internal scar tissue. She has made an appointment with her primary