My very sincere thanks to you all. Mom remains in intensive care, and was a bit more comfortable when we left late last night. She is only quasi-conscious at times, and was in a lot of pain most of yesterday. Long story, but they could not do much about it; her blood pressure was at 48/20 at one point. We are headed back there shortly.
It is possible that she will rally for a while, but it is highly improbable that she will see another Thanksgiving or Christmas. Her current situation is only incidentally related to her lung (and other) cancer, but is no less deadly. She is very religious, and would not sign a no-resuscitation order; two of my younger (local) siblings have been saddled with the Power Of Attorney (I am the oldest of seven). The combined effect is that she may well wind up 'on the machine' for a long time, with no hope of recovery.
That's a mighty sad thing to see coming, when she keeps saying that she just wants to get back home, and die there as my Father did in 2000. The reality is that she will probably never get strong enough to leave the hospital, nor to treat the cancer in any way (so she can get through the holidays one last time, as she had wished).
No telling right now when we'll get back to SC (or how long we'll be there when we do get home). If we get home briefly, I'll do my best to get a few things shipped out before we have to leave again. I also have a few more 'findings' to put up in the Classifieds, but they'll have to wait for a while.
