Wednesday

It was great to see Mum today - definitely a way better day than yesterday, much to everyone's relief. She continues to be very affectionate, and chatty about a number of things - art, friends and family, various things. Her energy levels do vary, though, and she needs to close her eyes and rest quite frequently. She is always concerned about those who are with her, shooing us out of the room while she rests lest we be bored - when I said we're not bored, she said "Quality, not quantity," and shut her eyes to rest.

There is in some way much more quality too - her throat is infinitely better and swallowing is no problem, which enables her to get her medicine down, as well as occasional chunks of ice cream and healthier drinks that I've provided. Vicky and I have some reservations about what they are continuing to pass off in the name of food and will be raising those concerns tomorrow (Vicky is here until the weekend, keeping up the manicures and pedicures, and more!).

Mum did some physio today - she sat up and did some resistance exercises to get some muscle tone back (her muscles have for obvious reasons very much atrophied). She was quite gung-ho and wanted to do some more but the physiotherapists wanted to make sure not to tire her out too much.

I brought Mum a stuffed Orca doll from BC Ferries - incredibly soft, much more so than the pillowcases at the hospital (not exactly 350 threadcount). She was happy to have a companion for the little platypus doll who also shares space in her bed when he doesn't get mysteriously relocated (he was hiding under the bed today). The nurses have commented that they never know what they'll find in her bed - a cell phone, platypus, make-up mirror...

The cards continue to arrive in hoardes and we're almost running out of room on the wall opposite her bed (as seen in the picture in an earlier post) so we'll have to start decorating other walls too, it seems. She is enjoying those and her paintings - she asked if I could bring her some rocks, noting that there must be some in the car. I told her there would definitely be some in the car, along with sand, sticks, mud-caked boots, crumpled tissue, half-packets of Halls, and squished boxes of band-aids. She laughed louder than she's been able to in ages.

I'll be flying back to Vancouver Thursday morning but will drop by to visit before leaving town - she seems to be in good shape in the mornings.