Dear Family and Friends,
Please share your thoughts on how you feel mom is doing after your visits with her here on this blog so everyone can stay informed and connected as we care for her each day. Also, if you want to use this as an additional calendar to say when you will be visiting, that is terrific!
I will try to post updates from the hospice team as they share them with me after their visits.
To mom's dear out of town friends, please join in the conversation and feel free to post too!
Knowing that mom is surrounded by peaceful, loving family members and friends each day is a tremendous source of comfort to us.
Love,
Kate and Beth
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ReplyDeleteTesting 1 2 3. ---Janet
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for doing this. I've been feeling frustrated that I cannot get to your mom's during the week to see her and know what's going on. I think that this will really help.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Meaghan
Thank you so very much for doing this. When I spoke with you mom last week she was so exhausted that she ask me to speak and said that she would listen. If I could have just switched bodies with Paula Poundstone all would have been fine -- Paula has no problem talking to fill. Hopefully Fran is getting more rest and spring birds are checking out her window sill. Love to you all and I'll check blog daily for updates <3
ReplyDeleteI'd like to visit Fran tomorrow morning, Tues., 2/25.
ReplyDeleteI was so glad to see Fran recently. Please give her my love. I know it is difficult for her to talk or retrieve information so please give her my love. I will send frequent cards. I look forward to updates. My love to Fran, Kate, Beth and their families.
ReplyDeleteDiane
I saw Fran about an hour today. Kate was there as was a new caregiver. Also, Fran has a new hospice nurse who will be coming twice a week going forward. Shorter visits may work out better now since details, talking, and Fran's attention to lots of details seems to wear her out. Kate will update us more. Love to all, Genice
ReplyDeleteHey guys, let's keep our blog going. Today I visited Fran this afternoon. Nick and Janet were there as well. The new helper seems to be working out. Fran's voice and communication seemed stronger. She just wishes her legs were stronger. She answered a phone call and was very alert during our visit. Nick and Janet visit a lot as do others. The good news is that Kate has taken Medical Leave from her work and will be seeing Fran a lot more. It will be great for Fran to see Maggie more as well. Love to all, Genice
ReplyDeleteHello to All! First, I'd like to thank Judi Weiss for her lovely card and gift earlier this week. Mom sincerely appreciated hearing your heartfelt and beautifully composed message and I am keeping your card in a special place.
ReplyDeleteNext, Mom has asked that visitors please call before coming by to say that you would like to visit. This way she can let friends/family know if she is too tired or how she is feeling.
Please do keep calling and stopping by because your wonderful support really brightens Mom's day!
This is less about how Fran is doing and more about my perception of what she is experiencing, so read on, or not. AND if you want to send me an email about this, in outrage or concurrence, feel free. jvglue@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteAs Fran’s brain takes its path, she is sometimes herself, sometimes not. To me, rather than an infant building brain, Fran’s is reverting, pathways broken and breaking still. She is herself, but with a shrunken world, a lessened ability to do all that she did. There is a mix of radiation after effects, brain functions breaking, likely some depression, anger at it all which may be displaced at times, no God to aim that anger towards, concerns about her loved ones’ lives beyond her lifetime and wanting to assure their lives go well, memory loss, quick and unexpected emotional reactions like a child might show, and likewise an intense focus on one caregiver, Kate, and comfort in her surroundings rather than outside of them, and all the physical changes that can seem one day better and another less so. She knows if she has a physically good day, a time will come when that won’t happen again. Will she remember she said this to me one day, will she simply not and need to be coaxed again to understand what is happening? Her fatigue could be from radiation, from the lesions, from depression, and it seems to me that she can’t relate all of this to her fatigue. She expects to not feel fatigued, but as time goes, she may sleep more frequently. She has a strong sense to be aware, stay aware, remain in control, we all see that. But with that fight, her brain and body are not at peace to proceed where they are going. This is what that darn lorazepam is helpful with, letting go, dropping frets and worries about both the big things and the little things. Fran will either reach a time when she can let go and be peaceful or her body will simply take over whether she is ready or not.
Not to be disrespectful, I’m prepared that some of what she says may not make sense, may not be accurate, her perceptions may be off, her reactions may not be as expected. Her brain is not working well. She may not retain things as she did and need things repeated to her, she may be quite changeable in her needs and wants from morning to afternoon to night, again as a very young brain would do. Take everything with a grain of salt, verify what she says if it seems important and a little off from what you’ve heard lately, her perceptions aren’t always spot on.
Fran is so loved and is so grateful for that. I wish her the peace of acceptance but naturally, she is not there yet. This has rambled, and may not say all I wanted for now, but enough for now.