You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Went to see Mom yesterday after school before driving north to hang out with "the kids". She was in pain due to her epidural being disconnected for over an hour, so they gave her more "umph" in her morphine drip and she managed to get through. The poor thing still hasn't been able to sleep more than a couple hours at a time due to her low blood pressure and nurses coming in all night to check it. Last night Dad spent the night and he said it was terrible how often they were woken up by visitors checking one thing or another. Sleep, and lots of it, would probably help her a ton!

I am seriously amazed at how many medical people come in-- there are nurses and nurses in training, aides, the doctor, custodial staff, social services, etc. And, because Mom is so popular, she's getting family visitors and for the first time today, ward and stake people stopping by. The stake president and bishop stopped by today and I think the RS president was going to go this evening. Apparently, the sk pres is fielding calls about Mom all day so now they're getting directed to the bishop and the relief society president. How touching is it that so many people are concerned about her?!

Today she managed to eat more than she has in days and she seemed more alert than I've seen her. She loves joking about how they pulled 6 liters of water out of her. (I thought it was only 2, but apparently, it was really 6.) Hopefully she'll be able to keep eating and her diet will progress back to normal before it gets screwed up again with chemo. She's been taking walks around the floor today and she loves being able to get up and walk. A nurse has to go with her since someone has to pull the oxygen, IV, and all that stuff along, but she's been asking to go for walks, which I hope is a good sign.

I took the kids down to see her today for the first time; they seemed pretty weirded out. One of them commented later that "it's weird to see Mom laying down in a bed and being dependent on nurses and everyone to do everything for her because you think of her as a super hero who just does everything for everyone all the time." That pretty much sums up how crazy this whole thing is. It's also strange that I can get to her hospital room on auto-pilot now, especially since Tuesday I had to google  directions before heading up there.

Still no news from pathology.  Her main doctor said they were trying to put pressure on the lab to get the results just so they can make a plan and get started.  The oncologist was going to come, tomorrow, I guess, to see Mom, but seeing as how they still don't know what type of cancer has infested itself, there's no use yet. The doc is being very non-committal about when she's actually going to be released from the hospital and when chemo will begin.