So, how's your mom doing?

She’s doing well, all things considered. (And no, I don’t mean All Things Considered, the radio show I’ve listened a lot to on my drives between Oakland and San Jose recently.)

Let’s break it down:

Stroke Recovery:

• Her speech is getting better and better. She still slurs her words, and she still has a hard time finding the right words, but after awhile you get used to it, so she becomes easier to understand. It seems that I understand her better than most, so sometimes I act as her translator. She gets frustrated, though, when she can’t explain something she wants to (like the plot of a Gilmore Girls episode that my dad has missed. By the way, they finished the series, and are moving on to The West Wing next. Any other shows ideas for them?) 
• Her right leg is getting stronger and stronger. She still can’t feel it, but she can use it more. She’s able to use it to stand up on her own, so she now stands up as we transfer from chair to wheelchair, or wheelchair to bed. She can also use something called a hemi walker to walk around a bit, but not for very long, and she walks very slowly. 
• Her right arm has almost no motion. (Have I mentioned that we name her right arm Fred? You’ll hear a lot of “don’t forget Fred!” in our house, since she can’t feel it, or see it, with her right side peripheral vision gone.) She can roll her wrist, sometimes, but that’s about all Fred can do. 
• She’s in a little bit of pain. Sometimes she’ll wake up in the middle of the night just aching all over. She started some new medication that seems to help, so hopefully that sticks. Her leg and her hand are also a little swollen, but the doctors seem to think it’s normal-ish. 

Chemo & Radiation:

• She hasn’t been nauseous! That pretty much means she won’t be nauseous for the whole rest of the treatment time, so that’s great. 
• She isn’t fatigued yet. But she just finished her two weeks of treatment, and that’s about when the fatigue and hair loss start. So we have to wait and see if that kicks in or not. 
• She’ll be done with radiation treatments on December 14th. Or maybe the 15th. Either way, it’s just in time for Christmas. 

Overall, she’s in good spirits. She laughs a lot, talks with us a lot, and seems to be doing pretty well, considering everything. My sister’s dog still doesn’t like her (sad) but my mom has gotten used to that. And she’s always happy when I come home.