Memorial Day Weekend

Well, it is early on Tuesday morning. I heard Dad leave this morning around 5am and got up to check on Mama Marian still asleep in the guest room shortly after. We had a great Memorial Day weekend together, including an off-road wheelchair trip to the dog park and a brief stint at the Falls Church Memorial Day Parade/Festival (followed by a long recovery nap!)

On Saturday night we hit up our favorite spot in Vienna for dinner with Mama Marian's friend from high school, Sue Ellen, and her husband Walter. It was hilarious to get the other end of some high school/college summer/newlywed stories and to hear about the "forgotten" drive to Asia as well! :) By the way, Ellen, we have been inhaling your cranberry scones; they are AWESOME!

So, I get Mama Marian for the whole week while Pops returns to CT for work! We will be driving back on Friday sometime and will be back in time for Tracy Sigman's memorial service this Saturday.

Mom is doing well overall, but continues to have daily falls with her walker. Jody and I think she may have a break in her right foot that is making things harder. She fell on Tuesday at home and is pretty bruised up all along her right side. Her foot has been really swollen this weekend and I noticed last night how black and blue it is on the inside. So, when she wakes up today we will make our way to Fair Oaks Hospital for some x-rays. Mom is in agreement as she has been feeling a lot of pain in that leg and foot and is "so sick of hurting", as she has said with each fall.

She also continues to have some very general confusion most of the time... like a delay in processing or word finding. It is hard to describe and I know that it is frustrating her quite a bit. However, it seems to be okay for the most part. I think the most frustrating piece of this is our never-ending quest of "why?" Some things just don't make sense because they have no clear-cut cause and effect. We don't know what is happening as a result of the tumor, effects from the surgery, lack of rehabilitation/atrophy, side effects of medications, seizures, or just plain exhaustion. And, sometimes I guess it's okay not to know why but you don't want it to be the time when you could have, would have, should have taken the steps to get it "figured out". It's hard to know when that time is versus any other time and that, in itself, is stressful.

I do know that Mama Marian really cannot stay at home by herself at all for right now, which even she has admitted to recently. The falls are scary and painful and are becoming too frequent. Lifeline may eventually be a great "peace of mind" tool but having someone there at all times is really going to essential for the time being. This is not an easy thing to do for any of us. I totally get Mom's need for alone-time and some sense of independence. In fact, I think we may have all been "getting it" for longer than we should have been. Again, it's hard to know when... There is some relief in knowing that this continues to be a journey of huge ups and downs and that harder things may subside as quickly as other things have. What goes up must go down and what goes down does come back up when we least expect it.