Nov 8, 04
Hey Y'all,

Sorry it has been so long since my last e-mail, but not much was happening, then all of a sudden things happen.Last Monday, I had some sinus surgery done. It was not any fun and I am still out from that. I go tomorrow to the Dr. to have the internal splints taken out. I may go back to work wed if I feel well enough. Thursday, Nov 4, was Mom's 82nd birthday. We went out to dinner at the Golden Corral, it is an all you can eat buffet. The nurses like it so that if Mom or Dad don't like something, they can just go and get something else. Sometimes Mom is a bit picky about her food. The evening went long because Liz had car issues and Nancy was late. We finally left the house and followed Liz (driving Mom), Jerry and I had Dad in their car. I didn't want to drive since I was still on pain killers. Liz didn't get on the freeway, she stayed on the feeder road and that took her about 30min for a 10 min drive. We had a good dinner and got them home about 8pm. The next day, Liz called me at about 1pm and said that Mom's stomach was hard. She called the nurse and she was on the way to the house. They gave her some gas pills and she was doing better when I got over there at 4pm.

On Saturday, Anna called me at 2pm and said that she thought Mom needed to go to the hospital, her stomach was huge. I got over there and she looked pregnant. By the time we got to the ER, she looked about 8 months along. They admitted her and began giving her treatment. I stayed until about 6pm that night (wasn't feeling well after being up for 4 hours) and Anna stayed until midnight. Mom was in a lot of pain and Anna stayed until Mom was more comfortable.

Sunday, not much happened and Mom slept most of the day. They had inserted a NG tube in her nose and also had a tube in her rectum on Saturday. They did a CAT scan Sunday and said that she didn't have any large tumor blocking her bowels (good news).

Today, I went up there at 10 and stayed till 3 (too tired to stay any longer) can't wait to get these splints out my nose. They are constricting my airway some and I am running a low grade fever on and off. Today I got to see the GI doctor. He wants to do a colonoscopy on her to look for any blockage that wouldn't be picked up in the CT. He has to wait for her coumadin level to go down before they do that. So they are anticipating doing that on Wed. So she wont be going home anytime soon. Mom looked so much better today. I think she used Sunday to get caught up on her sleep.

Today, she was awake much more, and reading one of her magazines. Yesterday, she would only look at the cover, and today, she was reading.I will keep you all informed on what is going on. Overall, she is doing well and so is Dad. He is a bit antsy about her not being at home and on Sat, while we took Mom to the ER, the nurse that we only use occasionally Denise, gave dad a diet coke and a small candy bar at 5pm. He was up all night long. Denise is his new best friend, but she is not Nancy's (the night nurse who was up with him all night).

Love and hugs to all,
Mary et al.