Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom came over to the house today for a Mother's Day lunch. Tom cooked salmon and chicken on the grill and we had a couple of sides, along with dessert: Whitey's Ice Cream Mississippi Mud Pie! It was a beautiful day: sunny and 70 degrees. Not a lot of wind, just a great afternoon to sit out and enjoy the nice weather. We bought each other a planter of flowers. Mine is a mix of little cream/yellow colored petunias and purple lobelia (always purple something!) and I got her a planter of a mix of a bunch of plants I didn't know what was all in there but it was pretty and looked easy to take care of. She has a green thumb more than me and it will look good on her front step.

Mom has had a terrible cold for the last three weeks. Actually it was more than a cold, and her doctor was worried that it would settle into her lungs. She is on her second round of antibiotics and hopefully this will knock it out! The sickness hit her really hard, and I think that her immune system still isn't up to par, even though she hasn't had a chemo treatment for a while. She does sound better today than she has all week, her voice isn't as raspy and nasal-ey. Mom pretty much stuck to the indoors and didn't go out much the last two weeks, and I was too afraid to go out and see her and bring more germs as Scotty and Tom both had bad colds the last couple of weeks as well. Fortunately she has great neighbors and friends to look in on her - especially neighbor Mike (right next door) who is a surprisingly good cook and baker.

She did make it to her appointment last Tuesday at Trinity to have her port flushed. Or rather TRY to have her port flushed - it's still not going through very well. The nurses haven't been able to get a return on her port since I don't know when (probably since her last Doxil treatment). But Dr. Porubcin seems to think it is not a concern yet. It will be a concern if she needs more treatments.

I had a nice surprise this week - Mom came over to my Rotary meeting on Tuesday as I was to receive the club's A.T. Peara award. It was a big secret and Tom was in on it, and had called mom to have her come over to watch the club present the award. It was great to have her there and share in the fun. She also got to meet of the Rotarians and meet some of the people that I talk about all of the time.
Tom, me and mom at Rotary.
Next week we are going to Uncle Steve and Aunt Rosemary's Anniversary Party/Reception in Peoria. I'm sure Mom will be up to speed next week and she is definitely looking forward to hanging out with everyone. I wish I could put her in a hazmat suit so that she can avoid any unnecessary germs but I'm sure she'll be careful and not get too close to anyone who doesn't look well. There's always something to worry about!