Angie & Jim

Friday, Pi Dayby Jim

Mom laughing at her daily dose of Studio C

Mom was quieter today. Each day she says a little less. She’s most talkative in the mornings after a good night’s rest. This morning Mom slept in and didn’t come out to the living room until mid morning. She had a little breakfast and Angie read to her from the Ensign. After our usual routine of YouTube videos (which still gets a good smile out of her), I read her some cards and posts people had written to her.

This morning I sat with Mom again and told her some stories I remember from my childhood. She looked right at me while I was talking to her, just like yesterday and I think she enjoyed it. I admit that I told her some of the same stories, but I don’t think it bothered her. There are moments like this, when she seems very aware and attentive; however, there are more and more moments when she seems to be in a daze, even though her eyes are open.

She wasn’t able to eat much today and drinking is getting pretty difficult. Sometimes she’ll surprise us, but more and more often, things are just too difficult for her. It is strange how she’ll just tense up when she’s trying to help us feed her. What I did today is feed her a bite or two and then tell her some stories to help her relax, which allowed her to open her mouth again, and then I could spoon something in. It makes for slow progress, but we do what we can.

Rebecca called this afternoon to tell Mom about her hibiscus, which seemed to please Mom. Later, we put on The Sound of Music, one of Mom’s favorites. We had a visit from Misty, our hospice nurse, who is always so kind and gentle with Mom. She came to place a catheter which will hopefully help Mom be more comfortable and minimize all the getting up and down.

When Mom has to get up to go to the table or to the bathroom, we have to help her up. Her legs have strength and when we steady her, she can put weight on them, but she has so little control over her body that she can’t stand or stay up on her own. It’s difficult to lift her safely and gently, so it’s helpful to be able to alternate between Dad, Jon, and me. I usually tell her I’m just giving her a big hug and that it is my favorite part of the day. She’s always been a really good sport about all the things we do to take care of her

After Misty left, Jon and Mom watched another of Mom’s favorites, an edited version of Joe vs. the Volcano, while I got some work done. I’ve been very fortunate that my employer has let me work remotely the last week and a half so we can be out here to help my dad. It has been such a blessing.

Normally we like to celebrate Pi Day, but with everything going on, none of us felt like making a pie.  Thankfully, the kind sister from the ward that brought us dinner brought us a pizza.  (That counts, right?)  “You’re probably tired of casseroles,” she said, as she handed us our dinner.  You probably don’t realize you did it, but thank you for helping us keep our tradition.

Joseph decided to fly out for the weekend, so tonight we kept Mom up a little later than her usual bedtime to wait up for him to arrive. We queued up a long list of Studio C and watched with her. Right near the end, Mom let out a big yawn, just like her stretch from yesterday’s nap. It was really strange to see because we’d spent a lot of the day trying to get her to open her mouth to eat or drink. Her yawn looked absolutely normal — a nice wide-mouthed yawn. Since yawns are contagious, maybe we should all just start yawning the next time we need her to take a bite of lunch.

Jason was over when Joey arrived, so he got to participate in the nightly singing. We had four boys and Angie. I hope she didn’t feel too overwhelmed by male voices. It was good to sing with everyone. We kept things a little shorter since it was already so late. We did sing the dehydrated carrots song, thanks to Becka who posted the lyrics.