Day 5

Now that the gin and tonics have filtered out of my system, maybe I can make some sense ;-) My dad ended up spending the night because our dear sister Martha had to head home this morning. Martha woke up bright and early this morning and headed here to the hospital to spend some time with my mom. Martha started school in August to be an ultrasound tech and if she misses too much school, she would have to start the semester over. My mom would not have that and would be extremely angry with her if she didn't continue, so with great sorrow we sent her back to AZ. In my selfish mode, I am a little happy that she is headed over to give Chase some big kisses for me upon arrival. Laura and I are in a holding pattern for the time being. We are hoping for Hospice placement in the next two days and we will then hopefully have a clearer picture on our plans. Some thoughts are home and back...but we are only planning for 15 mins at a time. Those were strict rules given to us by our aunt Mary when we first arrived and we have quickly realized that 15 mins is truly all you can really plan ahead for, if not even less.

So, it sounds like Sandy Hyland and my mom chatted like school girls until about 1am. Early this morning Martha and my dad said goodbye and then the rest of the Hyland clan headed over. Laura, Josie and I were a little on the slow moving order this morning. Really no good reason why, just probably overly tired. We are also beginning the task of organizing and disseminating the items at Grandma Mayme's house. I would suppose there is maybe just a little stress related to all of that ;-) When Josie, Laura and I arrived we received the SUPER news that the Hyland children were leaving their mother with us. So, hip, hip horray, Sandy is here to stay!! Sandy said that she did not have much choice in the matter as my mom had a death grip on her hand asking her to stay.

The Hyland children have since headed on the road back to Bismarck. Josie is once again back to the full body massage for my mom. Boy...am I glad she is here to do that :-) The Schieber children, Marsha's (sister, aunt) children are on their way over. Two of them are going to college here in Minnesota and one is in law school in Wisconsin. We expect them shortly. Frankie is also beginning her journey to the Midwest. She should arrive around 10:30 tonight.

Marj's health. As I said before, they were trying a shot regime. Last night, they turned off her NG tube, so her stomach suction was discontinued. The hope of the medicine was that her stomach would not fill up with fluid and cause discomfort, but of course that did not occur. So, her stomach filled up and caused pain, which of course made her angry and cranky. She got some morphine under her tongue and we have since turned the suction back on, so hopefully we are moving back to comfort. There is also the option of having morphine put right in her IV, which is much stronger and could cause more loopiness, so we are trying to avoid that. So...yeah...guess that about sums it up.