Thursday Update

Today I got an email from my good friend Rose in Hawaii who is keeping a close watch on our family situation. The beginning of her email went something like this:

"How are things going? I keep checking the blog site - does it look like the lung will heal? Is the breathing easier? Is your Mom in lots of pain? Does she still look more pink and less ashen?"

Rose continues with more questions from there. I love her questions. They transmit her love and concern for me and my family across the ocean and into my heart. Her recent round of questions has prompted me to give you this Thursday update. I need to remember that even though the story goes on in real time for Mom and my family, many of you are still stuck at where I last left you in the story. I need to catch you up!

Tuesday after Mom was done with chemo she spent the rest of the day at various medical facilities dealing with her lung tube. A big part of this was more chest x-rays to look at her lung. After looking at the most recent x-rays the doctors decided that Mom could have the lung tube removed. Mom said that as soon as the tube was removed the pain went away. Then she had to wait another hour and have another x-ray to make sure that the lung stayed inflated. This last x-ray showed that her lung was doing just fine and she could go home.

Wednesday Mom spent the day trying to recover from the previous 24 hours of taking big doses of pain medication. Of course this was also the day after chemo and she had all those drugs in her body too. It was a very sleepy day for her. Other than sleepiness, she did not have many negative chemotherapy side effects. Last time Mom was given a steroid with her chemotherapy. This caused her to have a rather negative reaction of feeling like she was going to crawl out of her skin with antsiness and anxiety. She could not relax. This time they did not give her any steroid and it has been much better. She has been able to sleep and relax.

Today Mom has continued to recover from the events of earlier this week. She is walking and eating and watching TV with the grand kids. Her cheeks are pink. She is not in pain. I think I am right to say that at this moment she is doing better with all of of this than any of us dared hope.

Now an update on our real estate life!

We have decided to go ahead with the purchase of the house at 1555 NW Buchanan Ave., despite the fact that we have not sold either of our houses! We have spent a good deal of time today getting our financial ducks in a row and we are ready to go. We will close on the new house May 14th. We still hopefully anticipate the sale of one or both of our houses this Spring or Summer. Spread the word, two great houses for sale!

I will let you all know when we are ready for the big pack. Thank you to everyone who has brought us boxes and food and support.

Love, Emily