Updates, Anecdotes and the Morale Project

After kicking everyone out of her "closet" for a good nights sleep, mom is even more on the mend.  Dad reports she has been sitting in a chair for 2 hours and took a walk 4x the length of yesterday's walk.  He also says she is being a good patient and a little feisty to him.  Things are getting back to normal! :)

Minutes after leaving her room yesterday I got a text reminding me to get the "smart chip" they use for the parking garages.  The woman had been out of major surgery about 14 hours and was still worried about me getting out of the parking garage- and managed to get her phone and send that text, even while connected to IVs and tubes and without her glasses (she was alone in her room- that text could only have come from her!).  This was after she spent the previous night asking me if I had eaten dinner.  Once a mother, always a mother…. even under heavy anesthesia and pain meds.

I have been so humbled by the number of people who have reached out to me to send good wishes to my mom and family.  Thank you so much.  I hear your frustration about not being able to DO anything- I feel the same way as I sit in Austin with her in a hospital in Houston.  So today it dawned on me to start what I am calling the Morale Project.

I'm hoping the Morale Project will allow mom to see and feel all the love that is around her when she needs it most, especially since they are predicting she will be going through chemo until May.  If you are so inclined, I hope you will join me in this by doing the following:

1. write a letter, find a great picture, send a card or a note (serious or humorous)- anything that says "I'm thinking of you and thought you would enjoy this"
2.  mail it to mom and dad's address with MORALE PROJECT on the envelope
3. Mom will put this collection of mail into a basket to save until the time she needs a pick-me-up. On a particularly rough day, so may open a couple, on a lonely day she may open one, but hopefully she will have exactly the amount of support and love that she needs each day until May where they will(!!) declare her "in remission."

There are 135 days between now and May 31, and I would LOVE if she could open something every day between then and now if that's what she needs.  So please feel free to send a couple of things, or send something now and something a month from now.  But also know that she may not open something that you send for some time after you send it.  So if you want her to see a note from you now, don't put "morale project" on the envelope. :) If you need their address and can't get your hands on it, leave me a note in the comments and I'll get in touch with you (I'd rather not put a mailing address on the internet!).

Thank you, friends and family, for loving my mother.  It is with all of your support that she will triumph over cancer!

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