Two weeks ago today, our little group of girlfriends, mothers, and daughters celebrated my mom's birthday, along with those of our friends Jane and Cari, with lunch at Caritas Village. Mom didn't feel much like celebrating last month when it was actually her birthday, but she's feeling much more like herself now. :-)
Last week my Aunt Bernie came to town, and she and Trish had a mini high school reunion with their girlfriends (My grandmother, Uncle James, and I were there, too, but we were just innocent bystanders). As usual, I was the group photographer.
A week ago today I got to wake up to this smiling (and squealing) face after having a sleepover with my friends Ashley and little Nolan! Later we chased (and I do mean chased) Nolan around my backyard and snapped some pictures. Mom helped with the chasing (and catching) and later noted that it was the first time she'd held a baby since surgery. :-) Not for long, though - that boy is BUSY!
On Sunday we went to church and lunch with Halle's family to celebrate the baptism of her big sister Cierra! We hadn't seen them since October so it was great to catch up and spend some time with our sweet girl. Until we had to say goodbye, that is. That's never fun for anyone. :-(
Yesterday morning I gave some shots with Shots on the Spot, which is owned by our friend Cindi (sometimes I work for her on my days off . . . my "play job", as I like to call it!), and later Cindi and I crashed a press conference at the FedEx Forum to welcome our favorite basketball player back to Memphis! We are so excited that Shane Battier is playing for the Grizzlies again!
We got to talk with Shane for a few minutes after the press conference (just as super-nice as he's always been) and then we were interviewed by the news! Mom was proud that we didn't sound like total rednecks or say anything stupid. Check it out . . .
Tonight my dad and I went back to the Forum to see Shane and the rest of the Grizzlies in action. We won. It was fun. I'm a total groupie and I don't even care! :-)
As previously stated, Trish is feeling more and more like her old self each day. She's felt closer to normal these last couple of weeks than she has in six months. Being off chemo has made all the difference in the world! A month ago you wouldn't have seen Mom going out to lunch or laughing all night with her friends or holding babies or going on Target runs. It's so great to have her back! Her appetite's better than ever, though her eating habits are forever changed due to her remodeled digestive system. Her energy level's getting better every day. Her blood counts were almost back to normal when she went in for her Herceptin treatment a couple weeks ago. Her hair's still falling out, but we think we see some new hair starting to grow back! She saw Dr. B (surgeon) earlier this week and he continues to be very pleased with how she's doing. And she still gets a "treatment" every Monday, thanks to you guys.
The biggest issue Mom's having right now is sleeping. She's trying to come off her sleeping pills, but she's sleeping terribly (or not at all) without them. And she's also started having what seems to be restless leg syndrome in last few weeks (so sometimes that prevents her from sleeping even if she does take a pill). This is totally new to us, so if anyone has any tips on dealing with RLS, we'd love to hear them!
Thanks for your love and prayers. :-)
5 comments:
Hi Callie!
I have had RLS my entire life (so has everyone on my mom's side of our family) so this is definitely not new to us! My great grandmother used to refer to her "restless legs" so we've called it that forever, and when the ads for RLS started coming on TV not that many years ago, we were totally astounded. LOL I'm sorry your mom is struggling with it... it can be so uncomfortable!!
I can only speak from my experiences, but for most people in my family, the restless legs start when we're tired and need to go to bed. So for us, usually actually going to bed helps. We take it as our sign that it's time to call it a night!
But there are those times where you're lying in bed and the legs just won't stop, or you're at a movie theatre or in a car or just watching TV, and your legs are going crazy. The ONLY thing that helps us is getting up and moving. Walk around the room, march in place, shake your legs out, etc. I have leapt out of theatre seats before to pace at the back of the theatre because my legs were going so crazy. LOL I've also worn a track in the carpet in our bedroom because I've had to jump out of bed and walk around so many times. Usually after 3-5 minutes of walking, I can get back into bed and settle down enough to go to sleep.
A couple things I've learned about medications and RLS - taking a Tylenol or Advil can help prevent legs from getting too restless. Nighttime cold medicines, some allergy medications and anti-nausea drugs that make you sleepy (up here our OTC stuff is called Gravol, I think you guys call it Dramamine?) make RLS SO MUCH WORSE. It's so unfortunate - I learned this the hard way once when I was taking a long bus trip overnight and I took nighttime cold pills hoping they would help me sleep. Instead I was up the entire night, trying unsuccessfully to stretch out my poor legs.
Hopefully this is at least somewhat helpful for you. I hope your mom is able to find some relief!!
Thanks for your input, Kate! Mom has never had issues with it before, so I'm sure it's related to surgery or meds or something. It didn't start 'til she came off chemo. She's on so many other meds, though, so who knows what's causing it. She's tried taking Benadryl to help her sleep (instead of the prescription sleep meds); that's an allergy med so maybe that's making it worse. Have you tried Melatonin? She's been taking that (again, instead of prescription sleep meds) to help her sleep, and I've read on a couple of sites that some people take it for RLS.
Hers seems to always happen at night, too - usually after she gets in bed.
My husband hss had RLS for years, and the only thing that works for him is Mirapex. Don't know if that would work with Trish's other meds. It does concern me that she is on Benadryl for such a long time...it blocks acetylcholine in the brain. In the elderly, which Trish is NOT, it can cause delirium. In younger folks it still is cumulative and can be dangerous. But I know she has to sleep, the doctors probably don't want her on prescription sleep meds for a long time....
Thanks for your comment, Jane. I hope Mom doesn't have to add yet another medication to her day, but, if it comes to that, we'll remember Mirapex. She doesn't take Benadryl every night. She's tried taking it a few times instead of taking her sleep med, but it doesn't make her the least bit sleepy anymore (before surgery, it would knock her out cold; surgery does weird things to you!).
Her oncologist doesn't seem to care about her being on sleep meds for this long. I guess when you have two kinds of terminal cancer, what's a little sleeping medication? Mom's just trying to get off them because she wants to. During chemo, her steroids kept her awake, but she feels like she should be able to sleep without medicine now. Who knows, though. Like I said, surgery does weird things to you.
Thanks for the update...the pics are great (Nolan is such a cutie and I'm sure he's all over the place!). SOOOO HAPPY that your mom is feeling more like herself and that she's been able to do the "normal things" again. I continue to give her my personal "treatment" daily and a more intense/specific "treatment" on Mondays:) I hope her RLS gets better. I don't have much experience on the medication side of things for RLS, but me, my mom, and my brother seems to have trouble with it from time to time. We definitely notice it more when we are tired and sometimes it is so bad I can't sit and I do have to move. That does seem to help. I have never had to take meds for it, and neither does my mom. It's just annoying when it's there. Maybe some of the medicines mentioned can help her.
Also, your news interview was great:) And let's be honest...you not only are glad that Shane is back because of his great presence and role modeling for the community...you're also glad he's back because you can stare/drool over him again in person:) hehe
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