Mom:

Mom has continued to choke on her meds and it's a very hard thing for us to watch and for her to go through. We have now made the switch to liquid pain medication. This seems to be the best solution. She still has a few medications that are in pill form and we try to give them to her but if it doesn't work, we don't force it. Sometimes mom is real good about opening her mouth for the pills and other times she clamps her teeth shut and there is no prying them apart. Even when she does cooperate with opening her mouth, she still chokes on them going down. It's scary. It's very hard on dad to watch her struggle this way.

Mom is sleeping a lot, almost 24/7. She is more awake in the morning before I leave for work. I think that is because she's had a full night of rest, peace and quiet. The TV is off, the people have all gone home or have gone to bed and so she can rest more peacefully and then is more alert in the early morning time.

Mom has stopped eating, she hasn't had solid food now for about 6 or 7 days. She does get liquids through a straw but has lost interest even in that. We are literally straw feeding water and juices to her.

Mom had another seizure last night and I suspect that we will start to see more and more seizures now. Her head is turned more to the right side and it hurts her for us to try to move her head more to the center position. I am told that this is part of the brain tumor and the added pressure it is causing.

Even though mom is in some pain - mostly headaches and not lucid a lot of the time, she is still thinking of others. Sometimes she gets too hot but won't push the blanket on the floor because she is afraid that one of my grandbabies is close by and she might smother them by doing so. Last night I explained to her that I was home late because Stephen took me out to dinner because it was my birthday and she responded - I'm sorry I didn't remember, I should have taken you to lunch today. It was really very sweet and tender. I love my mom.