Doing well

Diana is continuing her good and steady progress. She had a busy day yesterday, which involved an outing to see my Grandmother, so she is very tired today. However, she healing well on all fronts and is a model patient (well, mostly.) : )

I had more training in wound care today, and did a little better this time. Mom's home health care nurse is a very kind person and a practical, good teacher - Mom and I both feel very relieved when she is here. She and Mom both agree that I will be ready to "fly solo" by Saturday, so we'll see. Hmm, another random skill I can add to my resume!

Mom's wounds are healing very well, although they were so large that it will still be a good while before she can be without daily dressing changes on the two smaller ones, and the wound vac on the very large one.
Other than that she is doing great, although her overwhelming fatigue and lack of appetite continue to be challenges. And, though we don't have as many interruptions as we did in the hospital certainly, I think Mom would be very happy to go an entire day without having a nurse or a therapist come to the house. Again, her impatience is really showing itself now, which just shows me how tough she is, and how quickly she is returning to herself.

However, its easy to think that she's farther along in her recovery than she is, especially for those who don't see her fatigue and constant (although manageable) pain. A look at even one of her smaller wounds, or the incision on her abdomen, certainly gives one a better idea of how extremely ill she was, and what a long way she still has to go in her recovery. Of course, she puts on a brave face and talks an ambitious game, so its difficult to know how fragile she really is - but believe me, she is still a sick chicken (as my Grandma would say.) Every day I'm grateful for her, and mindful of how close we came to losing her.

Now, my role is the bad cop I'm afraid: I'm the food cop ("One more bite - come on, you can have one more!"); the medication cop ("Have you had your morning meds? ALL of them? How about vitamins??"); the rest cop ("Ok, you can go upstairs and look for that book - after you lay down for half an hour. I Know you're not tired, but just try....") Good thing Mom and I love each other a lot, or she would be pretty sick of me by this time. : )

I'll have more updates soon. In the mean time, know that she is doing well and recovering quite quickly - although, "quickly" is a relative term in this context. When one considers that a little more than a week ago she was barely able to get out of bed, with assistance, and able to stand only for a few seconds, her progress thus far is frankly amazing.
Thanks to all of you who have been such great cheerleaders for her - she appreciates the support and encouragement so much!