the word of the week is Jesus

Oh boy where do I begin.....Mom's tumor is in the place in the brain that controls her speech and memory. I you have had the chance to communicate with her since her tumor you understand what I mean. For those of you who have not had the opportunity let me explain. Memory wise she knows who we are but she can't remember when the last time she ate or what medication she has taken. As for the speech, she has to think about the words she wants to use before she speaks. She also inserts words in sentences where they don't belong or make sense in the sentence. She gets a word stuck in her head and uses that word literally 100's of times a day. So far the words have been velcro, nativity scene & cookie. The word of the week is Jesus. This is a phone conversation I had with Mom recently.

Me - Hi Mom what are you doing
Mom - Watching Jesus
Me - What is Jesus doing?
Mom - Nothing its just a rerun
* she was watching tv
Me - What is Dad doing?
Mom - He's outside riding the Jesus around in circles
* he was cutting the grass on his riding mower
Me - Is Jesus your new word?
Mom - Did I say Jesus?
Me - Yes Mom you said it several times
Mom - Jesus be quiet..do you want to go in the bedroom
* the dog was barking and the dog's name is Slinky not Jesus
Me - Mom you just called the dog Jesus
Mom - I did? I am really tired I am going to sleep now.
Me - That's a good idea I will talk to you tomorrow.

Every Wednesday Jeni and I go to Mom's after work and let Dad get out of the house for a while. Yesterday we decided to get Mom's Halloween decorations out and make her house festive. As we were pulling out the totes ( she must have had 10 totes of Halloween) I asked Mom what totes were for home and what ones were for your classroom? She said the totes on the floor by Jesus (Me) are the ones for the house. The ones by Mary (Jeni) are for school. I said Mom do you realize you just called me and Jeni Jesus and Mary? We were laughing so hard we were crying! So far we have been able to figure out what the Jesus means most of the time but we are stuck on what the "navy blue Jesus is that Dad left on". As I was telling Dan about this he said " I can't wait until the F word is the word of the week".

Mom had a few Dr appointments the last two weeks. Dr Potts ( Family Dr ) gave us a prescription for a wheelchair and walker. We got the wheelchair to keep in the car for outings and Jeni's sister in law had a very nice walker she is letting us use. Dr also gave her a prescription for Ameral. This is for sugar. We have been testing her sugar using Jeni's monitor because Jeni is a diabetic and has a spare. The Decadron ( steroid ) Mom is on is known to cause diabetes. Mom has been having trouble seeing and shaking ( which we thought was from the seizures but turned out to be from sugar ) her sugar has been so high that sometimes it doesn't even register on the machine. It has to be over 500 for it not to register. Normal levels are 70 - 100. Her feet are so swollen too. I can't even describe how big they are. The skin is pulled so tight it looks like its going to pop. She can't wear any shoes that she has in her closet. We are getting by barefoot or with slippers. The Dr looked at them Tuesday and said it was normal because of all the medication she is on. If they don't go down in a few days I am going to have to call him back. She is starting her second round of chemo beginning in October. This round is 5 days on 24 days off for 6 months. This an even higher dose that she was on before. In about a month the Dr will order and MRI and we will be able to see what the first round of chemo and radiation did to the tumor.

Hayden turned 13 last week. I now have two teenagers in the house. He also started running again. Cross country meets keep us pretty busy during the weekends. Hannah takes her CNA test next month. She wont be able to be an official CNA until she turns 18 but she will begin her first year of college with college credits.

Homecoming, Halloween, Thanksgiving are events we thought we would be celebrating without Mom this year. God sure works in mysterious ways. I will never figure it out but I am very thankful!