Day 13

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.  ~C.S. Lewis

Mom's NG tube is out! Yeah! They drained 1.2 liters of water from her lung and are now in the process of testing it to see if there is an infection in there or there are tumors in there or if it's just post-surgery fluid. She's still on an ice chip only diet but they'll start her on jell-o again tomorrow to see if it stays down. She still has the PIC line for nutrition right now since she's so malnourished from the last few weeks. Tomorrow is day 14 in the hospital and there still isn't a plan to release her. Once she can eat real food without throwing it up and the infections in her incision are healed (the middle is now infected), then they'll think about letting her go. We really, really need to start chemo so that she can get her intestines to start working better as the cancer cells die-- apparently the way they are on the organ, they are compressing it like an accordion. The new team of residents is on the floor now and they came in and talked to Mom while I was there; they seem really on the ball, smart and compassionate so hopefully they'll take good care of her and coordinate all the care she needs. I must say, it was a HUGE relief to see her without the NG tube in her nose and she seemed so much happier.


Dad took the kids to see her for the first time in a week and they were all happy to see each other. It must be really hard on Mom not to see her kids.