Today was a rough day. . . .

This morning we got up and headed to MDA for several things with mom. All went well until we went to the cafeteria for lunch and then it got rough. Mom began getting sick and it took us a while to get that stopped. We ended up "borrowing" plastic grocery bags to use as barf bags. We used these several times and they work really well. The problem was we were too slow and got messy. B went and bought her a new shirt but unfortunately we also got the pants but couldn't do anything about that except wipe off what we could and wipe at what we couldn't. I know she felt miserable the rest of the day because of it. It is really hard to watch your parent go through something like this; having your body do things that are beyond your control. Two ladies who had been sitting at the table next to us stopped and told us that they would be praying for us. That caused me to cry. . .what do you do when complete strangers stop and tell you something like that? This is the second time this has happened when Mom and I have been together. The first time was at a BBQ place and a man saw us praying before we ate and when he was finished he stopped by and told us that he didn’t know what we were praying for but that he would pray for us. Back to the ladies, they have been at MDA for a while; one of them has been taking treatments. They were from Oklahoma.
While Mom was having her lumbar puncture, I decided to go get something to eat since lunch had so much excitement and she had an hour wait before we could leave. On the way down there I was walking behind three ladies who were just chattering away. The older lady told her companions to let me go by. I told them not to worry; I was not in a hurry at all. The older lady asks me my name and I told her and her face kind of fell. I told her what my maiden name was and she exclaimed, “You are RA and BE’s daughter aren’t you?” I said that I was and we began a conversation concerning Mom and other things. She introduced me to her daughters and we had a nice chat and then they left to finish their business. After eating, B (sister) called and said that she was coming down. We chatted for a while and then saw a lady that we met the first day we were there. We spoke with her to see how her daughter was doing. She has had a very difficult time (this is her third time to deal with leukemia) and is ready to go home. They are from Alabama so I know it has to be very hard for them being away from family and friends. Mom called and said that she was done so we retrieved her, got her meds and went to our hotel.
We got to the hotel, checked in, went to our room and guess what. . . .someone was in that room. Well, their stuff was in the room so downstairs we went and guess what else. . . .they didn’t have any non smoking rooms. So we got back in the car to look for a new place to stay. We ended up at the Crown Plaza (very nice) and it only costs $69.00. B and I went and picked up dinner. Mom ate well and then she threw up again. Since then she has been asleep while B played on the computer, I washed clothes in the bathtub and played on the computer. We are all about ready for bed. I think I only got 2 hours of sleep last night and was up at 5:00 am. I think that was all of our excitement for the day. Hopefully tomorrow’s appointment won’t be as entertaining! She is down this evening and we aren’t sure how to get her to smile. Any words of encouragement for her will be greatly appreciated.

Goodnight friends!