Mary had her radiation therapy a bit late on Monday. It turns out good ol' LA-9 is an X-ray linear accelerator with gating. Its the only gating LA unit they have, so Mary is chained to that particular hardware. Other patients are allowed to move to the next available machine but Mary is limited to good ol' LA-9 and hence the frequent delays.
Mary developed an irritation in her throat at dinner Sunday night. It was so uncomfortable, it interfered with her ability to eat. She mentioned it on Monday to the attending nurse. I expect the doctors will want to chase that one a bit when they see her today. Normally, she sees the attending physician on Monday and the chief radiation resident on Tuesday. The attending physician moved his appointment to Tuesday today so I don't know how long Mary will be there. I warned Marge (today's driver) so she took a book and headed to the Stanford Shopping Center--credit cards in hand, I would expect!
The weekend, overall, was really good. Monday was not. Mary went to take her 90 minute nap at 3PM and I woke her after 6pm on my way home--three hours plus because of how hard the radiation hits her. Her stomach was screaming for food so I fixed some quick dishes just to stop her empty feelings. She was tenuous the whole evening until she took the heavy duty nausea drug. It finally kicked in and settled her down but it was well after 10PM by the time that happened. I cleaned the incision area where the suture knot is causing some discomfort and drainage, used the recommended lotions and potions on her back and legs, Mary does her tummy herself, and then I dispensed her regular eye drops for glaucoma. All of that meant we were ready for sleep about 11:30PM. I thought about email and blogging but I knew I was too tired.
When Mary isn't feeling well, she cannot move easily on her own so I provide whatever she needs or asks for. It isn't hard work, but it doesn't allow me to relax because when or if she needs something, she needs it now.
Mary's sister, Reenie, sent this humor bit yesterday. We laughed until it hurt and in Mary's case, it apparently hurt quite a bit. Enjoy!
Chapstick
We had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.
Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on the mat in our bathroom. We have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loved chapstick. LOVED it. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. Finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and explained he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer after he finished.
That year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.
We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally go into the bathroom. There was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right -their little bottoms do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. And the only question to ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth!?!
And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.
Author Unknown
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