Decadent night, decadent day
    Despite a few movement kinks upon arising both times (initially and after her nap) yesterday, Mom was raring to go once everything had worked itself out. During the first part of her day we decided to break out a new game MPS had suggested we might like, Finish Lines. Was MPS ever right! This game was made for Mom (and me, I might add). I won, but only because I hit a space that dictated me to take one of Mom's tiles. She was not happy!
    We've been getting closer and closer to a truly decadent night over the last few days and finally hit the target last night. We retired a little after 0300 this morning and that's only because I could no longer keep my eyes propped open. Mom was thoroughly involved in a long run of Golden Girls episodes on some cable channel. She even directed me, "Go on to bed...I can take care of myself." And, of course, she couldn't understand why I couldn't let this happen. Throughout the evening we also got in some reading and watched, with heightened curiosity, a showing of Grand Hotel. I was particularly pleased, last night, that we switched our cable subscription to a DVR box. Mom was rabid about discussing almost every aspect of the movie.
    Later we ploughed through family death stories, something we haven't done in a long time. I think this was provoked by a discussion we'd had earlier in the day about Mom's lung cancer. I can't remember how it started but, after breakfast and before breaking out Finish Lines we were talking about her breathing because she was musing about some of the difficulties she can remember having, and I mentioned lung cancer. As usual, she was surprised to yet again discover that she has lung cancer, so I went through a careful, thorough explanation about how this conclusion had been reached, what effect it has had on her life over the last few years and how we had adjusted to it without knowing it existed. She was not at all appreciative of the knowledge, this time, even though I was very careful and very upbeat regarding everything in connection with it. She seemed to forget about it while we were playing the game. When she had difficulty arising from her nap, though, and there seemed to be no physical cause, I teased her that she had gotten her nose out of joint from all the information I gave her about her lung cancer, its effects so far and the variety of prognoses attached to it. "Do you remember our discussion?" I asked.
    "Oh, I remember it, all right. I still don't think you know what you're talking about."
    "Okay. Well, that's fine. Maybe I don't. In the meantime, you know, life is what you make of it. I mean, my god, woman! Look at you! 91 and still..."
    "...going strong!" she interrupted.
    Although I decided to pamper her with a wheel chair ride to the living room after this conversation, shortly after dinner she was raring to go. One way or another, yet again, she came to grips with the information about her lung cancer and decided to deal with it in her own feisty way.
    So, I attempted to rouse her at 1400 today, an hour shy of her 12-hour-sleep-mark, but she wasn't having any. "I'm not done," she said.
    I'm hoping that maybe she wore herself out a bit from yesterday and we'll be retiring at somewhat earlier than 0300 tomorrow morning but you just never know. I'm fairly well rested...after my first awakening at 0830 I shook my head and decided to try to get a little more sleep, just in case. I finally arose a few minutes before noon. So, if she decides that another decadent night is in order, at least I'll be prepared for it. I'm grinning to myself. Although I tend to be thrown out of alignment by decadent nights, I'm pleased that Mom still has them in her.
    Better get everything ready for a second try.
    Later.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 14:56   email  this post