February 21 - Exactly one month

Tonight I am sitting in the hospital doing my best to type and to be quiet at the same time. Mom comments sometimes that I make too much noise as her "roommate" on the weekends. I do enjoy the quiet times at night in the hospital with my mom. Sometimes she doesn't have a lot to say.

During the day, quiet times when she is not sleeping bother me a little. I never know what to say and after a month of small talk, I have completely run out of things. It is difficult to talk about things like the weather to someone who hasn't been outside for a month. My children make it a little easier. I have stories of something they have done or said and Mom seems to like to hear about them most of the time.

My mom and I never had a problem thinking of conversations before this all happened. I would call her nearly everyday at 4:00 at least. When I would jump in my car to travel from school to pick up the kids at daycare I would have 10-15 minutes of Mom. Most of the time I would even call her back after I got the kids securely in their seat belts.

Let's review what happened this week:
Last Saturday - Mom had HUGE blood clots in her legs. The doctors did surgery and put a "filter" inside of her largest vein at the point where the two leg veins come together. I think it is called the "IVC".

Sunday, Feb. 15 - Mom rested from surgery and got a fever. She didn't take most of her medications on Sunday afternoon. We thought this might help to cause a fever. At one point I was worried they would reschedule her surgery on Monday because of fever. They didn't. Thanks to all who visited Sunday. Daddy and I had weird schedules and missed each other. Mom was without one of us for a couple of hours. We didn't like it one bit, but thanks to visitors - Mom was not alone.

Monday Feb. 16 - Mom had surgery to put in a shunt permanently. This will help the fluid in her skull drain into her stomach if it is too much. It is controled by a remote. Although we are very disappointed that she has to have this - the technology seems cool to me.

Tuesday through today - Mom has been continuously running fever. Her fever gets to about 104. Daddy says it goes up and down. The doctors search for a cause doing things like a spinal tap to check for meningitis, sonograms for heart and abdominal areas, and take LOTS of blood - as far as we know nothing seems out of the ordinary.

UNTIL - this morning we have word that they think her liver is damaged from a medication she took to prevent seizures. Dilanton. They stopped the Dilanton about 3 days ago. This medication can cause fevers in patients, too. We should see improvement with fever in about 3 days. They are predicting that the liver will regenerate. Until we find out if this is the cause of her fever for sure, the doctors continue to run an assortment of different tests on all parts of her body.

Mom doesn't eat much. She will drink. She doesn't want to get up out of bed. Even if she did, she can only go as far as the chair to sit up. Her blood clots continue to hurt her. She is taking blood thinner, but they are so large it will take awhile for them to go away. This week has really seemed to set us back. It looks like we will be in Baylor for a little bit longer while Mom heals.

Although all of this sounds horrible - and it does seem that way to us, too - there are blessings coming from all of this. Mom and Dad are reconnecting with old friends. We all are learning not to take anything for granted. Our priorities have been adjusted. I think my dad, sister and I are a little bit closer and we count our blessings often. I am sure there are more things, too.

God will not give us anything we cannot handle - and he is with us every step of the way on this long seemingly impossible journey with my mom.

Thank you for your prayers and everything kind you have done for us. You continue to help us to keep on going.