With arms outstretched...

Compartment 14B

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The mundane things.

2004-11-12 - 10:56 a.m.

My mother in-law is hanging in there and vocalizing a bit more. What she says* doesn�t always make sense**, but at least she�s forming words and trying to communicate. They tried her on some applesauce mixed with apple juice the other day but she couldn�t manage swallowing just yet. I know she doesn�t like the nasogastric feeding tube they�ve got her on right now so it�ll be a big relief all around if she can get back to being able to eat on her own.

Yesterday was Remembrance Day and, though I felt bad about it, I didn�t manage to go downtown for the ceremony � I settled for watching it on the news and observing my moment of silence. There was just too much to do around the house which has been allowed to slip lately. Before going to the hospital in the later part of the afternoon, I did all the laundry, including the sheets and towels, swept most of upstairs, as well as the stairs, changed out the summer clothes in my wardrobe for my winter ones, made a big pot of chili, and did a few small things that have been nagging to be done for awhile.

I�m hoping J uses some of his day off today to get the backyard ready for winter, change the Christmas lights from the back deck to the front of the house, and bag up the leaves at the front for yard-waste pickup. At least, that�s what I�ve asked him to do. When he said on my birthday that he�d be taking some Fridays off and would use some of that time to keep on top of the housework, he didn�t foresee (none of us did) his mom going into the hospital and our priorities shifting accordingly. Who wants to clean the fridge when you could spend that time with an ill loved one? No one. Not J, not me. But that doesn�t mean it no longer needs to be cleaned and with all the disorder in our schedules right now, it would be a relief to have a bit more order at home. I�m going to try to do what I can to that end this weekend.


* By �says� I mean whispers in a manner that is occasionally clear but is sometimes impossible to make out. Most often it falls in between where you can get the general sense of what she�s trying to say by making out the odd word.

** She�s talking about a local restaurant a lot, asked her daughter to give me some shampoo � no, my hair isn�t that bad � and has mentioned doing things that day that we know she hasn�t. On the other hand, she asked for a poppy on Remembrance Day yesterday and asked me how the ceremony was. She�s also mentioned that she�s bored a lot and not getting �good quality sleep�.

Before - After


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