Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A new week......a new weak....

The first day of June - another month has flown by. I realize how lucky I am to not be working right now. When Miguel got sick, I stopped working and we moved to Kansas - despite all kinds of worries and financial concerns, it was nice to be able to focus on helping him. I now feel the same way about my mother. I have the freedom and time to help her navigate her new situation and to help make her life comfortable and as enjoyable as possible - oh, and plan her 90th surprise birthday party. First I will tell you about my mother and then - I will display my PartyMamaBerserkitude.....

My mother has had pain for a few days in her shoulder and chest. Yesterday we headed off to the emergency department in the morning (at the advice of her doctor) and we found out that she has a fracture in her sternum. A pathological fracture - so the cancer is spreading in her bones. This is a big blow - it means that her pain needs to be controlled with morphine - and this will affect her daily life. It also means that the fragility of her bones is confirmed in a bone-crushing way - this cancer means business. One good thing is that she accepts that she needs help with daily functions - so we will work on getting more home care for her in the morning and in the evening.

Having had other emergency visits in the last few months, I took a few minutes to get prepared before taking her to the hospital. I packed water, sandwiches and fruit. I also packed a Boost nutritional drink for my Mom. I made sure I had a good engaging book to read and I threw in my mother's overnight kit. I had Miguel drive us to emergency, so I didn't have to worry about parking (terribly expensive and the meters need to be tended every hour). It was masterful planning - and it meant that in the afternoon when my mother's morphine had kicked in and her pain was controlled that she could eat her favourite sandwich (while we waited for test results). Brilliant, I tell you.....

While sitting in emergency and worrying that my mother was having a heart attack or heart failure (that was the initial concern), I started to think.....sheeesh....what do I do about her party?? Crazy thinking.... In any event, my mother has returned to her Lodge and she was down at dinner and playing bingo last evening - so nothing is going to stop her.

Here are the finished wooden blocks (made from the fence that fell down when hit by a tree). Miguel finished making the blocks - he is more meticulous than I am. Here is the mystery - I had 13 pieces of wood and photocopied 13 sets of images - and somehow I ended up with only 8 complete blocks. My daughter (who had resized the images and turned them into black and white wonders) commented that the photos I posted the other day of these blocks, were a bit fuzzy. There is a fuzzy explanation..... what you are seeing is a telephone camera photo of a photocopy of an old photo.

My intention was to have the blocks on the tables for the party - people can look at them and see my mother's life in 6 photos. After the party, I will give a block to my sibs and kids as a keepsake. Thanks Martha for the inspiration.....
In other PartyMamaBerserkitude....these are flower decorations for the tea party - I have cut out LOTS of these in different pinks and they will be on the tables. Each one is filled with my mother's favourite mints.

Below, I am holding the mint package, so you can see the tag.....I think these favours are another brilliant Martha idea. The little favours are all cut out and ready - but I will wait until a few days before the party to assemble them.

Happy June dear friends........

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Talk about making lemonaid outta lemons...you are one amazing woman!
Your party favour/flowers are gorgeous & will go so well with those pricey serviettes. Wait until your older meaner sister arrives, she told me that she's looking forward to making them all...
JJ