I hate roller coasters. Emotional ones are worse. Today has been one of those days.

James was getting ready for work when he heard a thump and exclaimed, "I think your mother just fell." I don't even remember getting out of bed. Yes, she had fallen and given her head a good thump on the television stand. (Sigh...I've moved it away from the bed; I just wanted her to be able to see it better, since it's only a 13 inch screen and she only has one usable eye.) She was trying to go to the bathroom and her knees had given out. James helped me get her back up, I treated the scrape on her head with saline, alcohol and Neosporin, then helped her to the bathroom and kept her awake for the requisite hour. Despite the raw spot, she said the eye was hurting much worse than the scrape; in fact after I treated it she did not complain about it hurting again.

The nurse came at lunchtime and examined her and said she was okay except for the usual complaint about the eye pain and talked her into taking a second Percoset. (She said the dosage Mom has is really no more effective than Tylenol and if we need it, we can get stronger ones.) She admitted Mom's facial bruising (from the cancer) looked worse today and she didn't seem to be in as good shape as last week. I told her about Mom sleeping all day yesterday and that, despite the pain, Mom was actually a lot better than she had been yesterday; she was alert and drank nearly an entire bottle of Boost and had actually had all her medications on time so far. The nurse confirmed my suspicions that yes, it's going to be like that.

While Mom visited the bathroom I completely tidied up the room and the futon and also dusted, she sat and watched her soaps for about an hour and a half. But after that she was sleepy and cold again, so I gave her more medication (she had requested it), and snuggled her under blankets and let her sleep again.

In between caring and housework I dubbed off two more blooper specials and some M*A*S*H stuff: PBS's Making M*A*S*H, narrated by Mary Tyler Moore; CBS's special Memories of M*A*S*H; a couple of shorts from PM Magazine and Entertainment Tonight about the M*A*S*H finale; and Entertainment Tonight's preview of AfterM*A*S*H (in which they predicted the series would be a "sure thing"; oh, well...). These longer things are easier to do right now, since I can start them and run upstairs while they are on. Doing things like Timmy and Lassie and Jeff's Collie will have to wait because I have to cut the Nickelodeon breaks out of them.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:45:00 PM

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