Today was a full day! I didn’t sleep again last night woke up about every hour on the hour. I’ve been taking Benedryl by IV each night to help me get to sleep, but I wake up shortly after and feel compelled to get online, check emails, research, fiddle around with whatever tubes and other equipment I’m hooked up to.
It’s almost become a ritual of some sort and I’ve become accustomed to these quiet restless nights. At some point during my half awoken state, I accidentally erased everything off my blackberry including contacts, emails, appointments, etc. I was too tired to care and figured it would be an easy fix the next day. The morning started early from this anxious feeling of not having my “sidekick” blackberry so I jumped outta bed early and started the day.
Wes’s mother brought breakfast and we spent the am chatting and catching up with Bryan Martin. The day was so beautiful outside we ended up walking the grounds again (or the ghetto avenues, depending on how you look at it) for about an hour. It felt absolutely wonderful to stretch the legs and get some sort of exercise. I think by the time the three of us returned to the room we had all worked up a little sweat!
By that time, the no Blackberry access was starting to kill me. I got on the phone and started my crusade with T-Mobile. 2 1/2 hours later, I FINALLY had access to internet, contacts and my work emails. I am still having issues accessing my gmail, but at least this is start. My poor friend Erika, sat by my side in the room waiting as I yacked away trying to resolve my blackberry hell.
Meanwhile, I received a call from my California Uncle who said that he would be driving through the area around 3 p.m. and wanted to see if I was available to meet up. What a nice surprise! I have not seen this Uncle for over 10 years! We sat for hours and reminisced of my late mother and he talked a little about the history of my father and mother in their young years of marriage.
It was really interesting hearing from his point of view chain of events over the past years. I had no idea that he had spent the time that he did with my mother when she was diagnosed with Cancer. He told me that the tumor had affected one side of her brain, so when she would walk or use certain motor skills, her balance and judgment of distance would be off.
He would come to visit my family in Park City, Utah when my mother was diagnosed and would take her hiking in the mountains. This was something that they had always cherished and shared together. He said that they would hike to the top of the ski resorts and joked that because the motor skills were “off”, my mother would always walk the fine line of death as she hiked near the edges of the trails and cliffs. I asked my Uncle if she ever mentioned anything specific about us kids that he thought was important. He said she (my mother) was very concerned about not being able to spend the time with her kids and see them grow old. This reminded me of a time shortly after my mother passed. I found a journal that she had written and in it my mother wrote that she was extremely sad that she would never “get to hike, bike, and do activities with her children”. I will never forget those words…
My Uncle stayed for a few hours and then was on his way to his next adventure. Dan & Patty are on their way over now with Patty’s famous enchiladas! I can’t wait! I’m hoping mu stomach will be able to handle this. I am still having issues with my stomach being distended. It hurts and feels like I constantly have a REALLY full stomach. The docs keep asking if my bowels are working…YES they are more than fine! They think it could be from the steroids. I won’t be off these probably for another couple of weeks! Dr. Bibb (oncologist) came to do his round last night at 9pm and said that he would taper the steriods each week and that I can get outta here Mon or Tues. He is the on call doc during this upcoming week, so I am assuming that the discharge will be up to him.