1 more day? (5/1 update)

Y'all knew that whole two posts in one day thing wasn't going to happen, right? I mean, let's be real.

Actually, it was the Grizzlies' fault. The game didn't start 'til 10:30 here, and I fell asleep during the 4th quarter. (Bad fan alert. I did sleep in my believememphis shirt, though.)

Okay, so Dr. Martin came in yesterday and told us he wanted to discharge Mom on Thursday. As in, tomorrow. At this point, she was still on running IV fluids, along with random electrolytes being given every few hours because her labs were out of whack. Her tube feedings were at 10 ml/hr (her goal rate is 55 ml/hr), and she was on a clear liquid diet. We thought he was crazy.

However, we've made some progress today. Sort of. As of about 6pm tonight, Mom is up to her goal rate on her J-tube feedings. She has tolerated this without any new GI problems, with the exception of one little bout of nausea after being getting a pain med this afternoon. The tube feedings will give Mom all the nutrition she needs to maintain and gain weight. At this point, Dr. Martin isn't concerned with her eating anything by mouth at all. He's comfortable sending her home on tube feedings only; we'll probably start working on "real" food next week. Mom's IV fluids have been discontinued. Today was the first day that her labs were normal enough to not need any supplements. She's only needed IV pain medicine once in the last 24 hours; the rest of the time we've been able to manage her pain with oral/J-tube medicine.

The "sort of" is there because Mom just hasn't felt good today. Her throat's been sore again (it's been better since her NG tube was removed a few days ago). She's slept a lot more than usual. She hasn't wanted to eat or drink. She hasn't wanted to talk or get out of bed or watch TV. She's gotten up to walk the halls a couple times because she knew she needed to, and we even made a trip outside, but each time she couldn't wait to get back in bed. We can't put our finger on what's wrong, but she just hasn't felt good in general. I asked her if she thought she was depressed and she said she doesn't think so. So pray that she'll wake up tomorrow and be rid of whatever funk she's in tonight. And if not, pray that we'll be able to figure out what's causing said funk and fix the problem.

If all goes as planned, Mom will have a CT scan in the morning to make sure there are no post-op complications (Dr. M does this routinely with all his patients - he's not expecting to find anything). If that looks good, she'll be discharged, and a home health nurse will come visit us daily for the next five days. Some sweet friends of friends have graciously offered to let us stay in their carriage house for the remainder of our stay in Louisville. Don't know what a carriage house is? You're not alone. I think it's a Louisville thing. It's basically an apartment. A really nice one, in this case. This will be so much better for Mom than a hotel room! Especially since the prices of most hotel rooms here triple or quadruple in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby (it's on Saturday!).

Prayer needs in review: good night tonight . . . good CT scan in the morning . . . Mom to feel more like herself . . . cancer cells to die . . . God to be glorified. :)