On Friday night, Mom had a rough night. The pain stepped up a notch, after her (assisted) shower. She also threw up after her shower — the exertion, the drugs, or just the advancing of the disease, who knows the cause? There is no certainty in cancer.
Saturday morning, the docs evaluated and increased her daily […]
Archive for the 'pers' Category
From http://www.amitabhahospice.org/hospice/signs_of_dying.php :
Closer to death, the breathing involves the whole rib cage and is fast (up to 30-50 breaths per minute) mostly through the mouth and then may pause for even 10-15 seconds before the next in-breath. This period of no breathing is called “apnoea”. This pattern (called Cheyne-Stokes breathing) of shallow quick breaths followed by […]
I had to run an errand to Mom’s house, waiting for the pickup guy to take away the unused medical bed from the house (now that Mom’s in hospital to stay). While I was there, surrounded by her things, I got such a sense of the bits of her life that I didn’t know. We’d […]
Today, Mom was a little social butterfly. When I arrived, she was already on her second visitor of the day. And then she got a phone call, and then the OROC ladies visited. She was laughing with the OROC ladies, asked after all their families, and then joking about forgetting things. But now she has […]
(now that I’ve found out that the hospice wing has wireless, I’m retro-posting some of this…)
My letter to friends on Thursday, 5/8/2008:
You may know that my Mom, Kay, was diagnosed with cancer 5 years ago. She has been fighting it well, pushing it into remission multiple times. However, she has been declining since January, and this […]
So, everyone has a fav movie, right?
Blade Runner is mine.
Why? Maybe because I was an impressionable 10-years-old when I first saw it. Maybe because I already loved flying cars and science fiction. Maybe because I’d just read Neuromancer, and the opening 10 seconds perfectly visualize the dystopian ruined-industrial vision of LA that I’d imagined while reading […]
Art wall projects are now complete.
With hanging-hooks from Dad (since my house doesn’t have picture rails), a little wire, and some fishing line (to secure the quilt to the mounting-block), the quilt now is positioned nicely in the stairwell wall.
And I finally bought/found frames for more of my travel pics, so those are on the […]
Today was the second week of blacksmithing class at Pratt.
When the forge is first turned on, I smell the heat. There’s a whiff of gas, but it lights fast and burns, so not much escapes to the room. Mostly, I smell something else, the heat. The workroom is outside the main building, basically outdoors, with smooth […]
I had my semi-monthly PT today. We used biofeedback to isolate the target muscle groups, and make sure my exercises were working the right spots. The system fed to a computer screen, and the readout was very immediate and sensitive. It was great — when I shrugged my shoulders, even just a little bit, the […]
I saved a busload of people last night. I only saved them from being lost and afraid, but it was satisfying nonetheless.
Riding the bus home after dinner in Seattle, we diverted around 45th Street, which is being repaved. 45th Street goes straight along the grid. 40th doesn’t.
The bus driver stopped and made a small announcement. There […]