Rehabilitation Day 2

(This photo was taken the weekend after she was diagnosed - June 26th)
The day of realization: Mom woke up this morning and just before attempting to eat breakfast she asked me, "Brook, is my tumor growing?" I stood quiet for a moment and somberly nodded my head. Even though Mom was told by the doctors one week prior that the tumor has grown, it was only in this moment she was ready to process the news. Naturally she broke down and this started a day full of tears and telling each person she came into contact with that her tumor is growing. Through the tears and anger she is working towards accepting her tumor.

News updates:

White blood cells - they are remaining at healthy levels

Platelets - They dropped back down to 16,000 (normal range 200,000 to 400,000)

Nutrition - Even though she has only been able to eat several bites of food at each meal the blood work shows her nutrition is exactly where it is supposed to be! Tonight they gave her medicinal marijuana to hopefully increase her appetite. I am still trying to figure out a way to sneak some for myself :)

Bone marrow biopsy report - The doctors reported that they have every reason to believe that the lack of platelet production is due to the residual response from the chemo and they are not suspecting any other secondary condition. This is good because it means we are not dealing with a secondary medical condition/cancer, but it is negative because she is no longer a candidate for chemotherapy

Diverticulitis - healed to 50%-75%

The rehabilitation team has given her a tentative discharge date for September 29th! The light is at the end of the tunnel.

She pushed hard during physical therapy and made three laps around the nurses station with no breaks!

After a rest between therapy sessions we made our way to group therapy. Wednesday's is music therapy which mom HATES! After social directing the group and once we got started with the actual music therapy which consisted of making notes with the letters of your name, mom gave me the predetermined signal for me to get her the hell out of there!

After we snuck out of group music therapy the white coats entered our room to tell us more news. Mom cannot go home with low platelet levels without a way to manage the potential risk of blood clots. To avoid blood clots she has been taking blood thinning shots each morning. She cannot take this blood thinning medicine however when her platelets drop below 20,000, therefore she has to have yet another operation. On Friday she will have an Inferior Venna Cava Filter installed via a catheter via a port on her chest. This will prevent blood clot in the lungs.

After some more crying we took a nap together in the hospital bed. It reminded me of the days when I was afraid to sleep by myself and mom would always let me sneak in bed with her.

She worked with the occupational therapist in the afternoon with bath rooming and grooming. She got another shower and this time managed not spray her shoes and her guests with the nozzle. She was a little out of control the other day in the shower.

Her friend Tater came for a bit to give me a break. Soon there after another friend Kathy came to give me big relief for the evening.

Mom made a friend during music therapy in room 22 who is also a quilter. Kathy took mom to see her and they had a nice long chat about quilting and cancer.

She went down early for another peaceful rest.