Friday October 11, 1991
Slept very well from 10-7 with the help of my PCA morphine. I am up cleaning up and brushing my teeth by 7:15. Feeling pretty good. I am ready to eat but still not approved by my doctor. No doctor by 11 a.m. so my nurse calls him to ask when I can eat. He says as long as I have passed gas I can have a liquid lunch. My nurse tells a fib and he approves a liquid lunch. I promise to pass gas before lunch. I can feel the rumbling now.
I am so excited to receive my first meal of clear broth, juice and jello. It tastes wonderful and sits well with my tummy. Dr. Beinstock finally arrives about 4 p.m. He says I'm doing so well I can go home tomorrow. I thought I had to have several meals before he'd release me. He says I can have a regular dinner and breakfast tomorrow, then go home.
Bea and I slept very well tonight.
PCA morphine is the acronym for Patient Controlled Analgesia, as pictured above. Mom had a morphine drip at the end of her life and it gave her a great deal of pain relief, although she didn't like the way the morphine knocked her out. When we visited her in the hospital, she would tell us she was going to give herself some morphine, that she could still hear us in her stupor even though she would not be able to talk with us, so to please continue to visit with each other.
After 5 days in the hospital, and 4 different roommates she saw come and go, she must have been very anxious to go home after her hysterectomy.
On a personal note, my husband Ric and I are leaving for Hawaii in a few days and today I was packing some clothes for our trip. The last time we went to Hawaii, and the last time on a plane, was the trip with Mom and Frank in May 1991. Mom loved to shop and she left behind several boxes loaded with clothes. I was looking through some of those clothes today for "tropical" clothing, and recognized some of the clothes from our trip in 1991. I was overcome with grief and sadness, thinking of her, and shed a few tears. I will be thinking of her on our trip. I love you, Mom.
