Day 42… Hard to believe Mom’s 42 days into this ordeal! These few days have been ‘days of healing’. They moved Mom to another room down the hall… All the jack hammering, pounding, sledge hammering and drilling right next to her room where they were doing hospital renovation work was just too much! When Mom’s Nurse helped her shower the pounding sounded like it was directly behind the shower stall… probably was :-/
They began introducing Mom to ‘food’ on Day 40. They gave her 4oz Apple Juice to sip for breakfast, lunch and then dinner… Day 41 brought her breakfast of jello, lunch of tea, jello and clear chicken broth. Dinner was ‘ditto’ except chicken broth was beef broth this time and instead of jello, it was Italian Lemon Ice :-) When Mom saw Dr. Zane on Day 41 he told her she was his ‘Star patient’ and could be sending her home Saturday (10/09)… WHAT??? We wouldn’t have time to clean out her fridge!! =D When we mentioned as much to Mom she said cleaning out her fridge is not a problem she’s concerned with… She said she’s afraid of the food in there now, this will be ‘starting over’ nutritionally! The food on the clear diet she just ate a little of everything because she’s ‘testing the waters’ and Doc told her to go easy and not think she has to eat everything they serve… While she nibbled I once again, looked over her ‘Foods to Avoid’ list. I saw beer listed but not wine… When I mentioned that to her she said, “You just noticed that? I noticed right away and Margaritas aren’t on there either!” ;-)
Today, Day 42 Mom was walking her morning lap when she ran into Dr. Zane… He asked, “What’d you have for breakfast?” she replied, “Yummy jello” He said, “Oh no. We have to have you eating real food! I’m putting you on a regular diet.” When they brought Mom her lunch it was a Chicken Caesar Salad… Mom said, “It’s big enough to feed a family of four!” Then for dinner they gave her a plate of chicken pasta with broccoli… Note > As you may have guessed, broccoli was on BOTH the Odor and Gas list. We just looked at each other… Hmmmmmmm :-/
As you can imagine, 42 days of not eating and Mom’s stomach has shrunk… 6 pasta noodles, 1/8 of a dinner roll, 3 bites of salad, 1/2 cup of milk, a few bites of her melon cup and Mom was FULL!! We’re a little nervous about tomorrow… We don’t think sending her home tomorrow is a good thing. She’s yet to be trained on caring for the colostomy on her own and today’s really the only day she’s had ‘real food’… Not sure how she’ll react to it.
We’ll see what Day 43 brings, but in Mom’s best interest we’re hoping they’ll give her 48 hours to see how her body reacts to the introduction of food…. We’ll be in touch! :-)
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