Change of Focus

Over the last month - as you've seen on this blog - our family has put a priority on focusing on helping mom realize some good family times, grandson's graduation, and the recent trek & adventures to Mount Rushmore and home.  From this time forward, the family time will be focused differently.

With some help from friends, she was able to make it to church yesterday, something I know is very important to her.  But the difficulty of today included her having to be transported to the hospital via a 911 call.  She was having some extreme difficulty with her ability to get up out of bed and her internal GI systems having minds of their own right now and not behaving normally.  Between my brother and sister and myself, we all had various phone calls including ones with mom, mom's doctors, mom's neighbor and numerous texts amongst the three of us confirming the necessity for 911 and hospitalization.

Both Margaret and Dale were with her at the hospital today, and at this moment, Margaret is still in ER with mom at Loma Linda Hospital in Murrieta awaiting an admitting bed...it's been busy there...hopefully just as a hold before getting her near her surgeon up in Loma Linda Hospital in Loma Linda as soon as possible.  Dale headed to the house to help take care and prepare for her return, along with some wonderful help from mom's great neighbor Katie who has "been there" for mom in so many different ways for many years.

There are still some conversations to be had between the doctors with regards to diagnosis, treatment details or processes moving forward.  However, the preliminary information regarding her struggle at this point looks like it might be an abscess, an internal infection causing the current problems, but not sure yet.  Also don't know if related to her recent surgery, advancing cancer or what the cause is exactly.  However, her white blood cell count is quite low and the hospital has her on strong antibiotics and pain medication.

We were already prepared to start work today toward getting some home health care for her sooner than later, but this situation certainly expedited and increased the attention needed.  Getting mom admitted right now is a big relief for her...and us, frankly...assuring she'll get better and professional care at this moment.  It also will hopefully allow us some more time and medical assistance to arrange whatever comes next.  All this is happening even before her scheduled initiation of chemo treatment on June 30.  Of course, all of this could have an impact on the decision to begin chemo...delayed? when? or if?

Now, here's where the "community of mom" comes in.

With these more challenging times - which will continue - your continued positive thoughts and prayers for strength, comfort, and peace for Nan and all of her caregivers will remain welcomed and most appreciated.  However, both of my siblings are firefighters and have 24-hour shifts for work and I live and work up here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  It's important for us all to continue to be able to work to our maximum ability, which will help us to continue to be able to provide what time and resources we can for mom's care.  That also means we cannot be by mom's side 100% of the time.

So there will be a time in the near future that the call for direct assistance will be at hand for those who are closer and able.  What that might be, we're not quite sure yet - maybe rides to doctor appointments, visits at home - but once we have a better idea out of this immediate crisis, we'll be letting you know. Pastor Brian is visiting mom tonight, we appreciate his time.  I know the Spirit of Joy community loves my mom and will do what they can...and we as a family welcome and are most appreciative of the assistance. Please stay tuned, we'll update you with more as we have the information.