Mary had another couple of rough days. After our birthday celebration on Saturday, Mary had severe abdominal pain (caused by her cancer and “the corn on the cob from hell”). Mary has ALOT of cancer that is all encased in her abdomen (liver, bile ducts, gallbladder, and on the inside of her stomach/skin), which can make digestion difficult at times. She had been craving corn on the cob since she was first in the hospital, so we bought some delicious looking ears of corn and we all piled numerous ears on our plates. Mary enjoyed every bite, as did we all — but we all paid for it all weekend, and Mary suffered the worst of it. As you may know, corn is incredibly difficult to digest, so while we all had issues digesting “the corn on the cob from hell” – Mary’s suffering was truly hell-ish. She was unable to eat for 48 hours, puked anything that had been in her body up, and couldn’t find comfort or peace. She was in a constant state of agony and no matter what we did – we couldn’t seem to manage her pain and symptoms (which has been our greatest issue all along and it’s something we’re working with hospice on daily – in hopes that at some point we can have Mary’s symptoms and pain under control. Every day feels like a new adventure and a new journey, but we think we might finally be getting somewhere with the pain and symptoms management.

Yesterday we worked with hospice on a NEW plan, which consists of this:

• New pain medicine regiment, which also includes a regular schedule of morphine throughout the day and an anxiety medication to help our mom relax, not worry as much, and not fret.
• Soup, soup, and more soup! Focus on having different kinds of soups available for our mama throughout the day, so she can be getting more nutrition and it’s easier for her to digest. We’re going to try to make soups mainly with bone broth and use the AIP protocol as our guide – since those will be the most nutritious and least intrusive to our mom’s digestion. [Our mom is still eating fruit and other things as she feels hungry for them – meat, veggies, sorbets, snacks, etc. Whatever she craves, we’re giving her that as well – so it might not all fall into the AIP protocol, which is fine.]
• Water. “Water is life,” as they say. We were trying many different juices, types of water (coconut water, flavored water, etc), electrolyte drinks, and other things – just to keep her hydrated. But they all seemed to make her nauseous. So we decided to cut those all out (unless of course she craves something) and focus on just having her drink as much water as she can, for as long as she can.

We added and changed a few other things, but those are the main things. We’re hoping that this new daily regiment will help manage our mama’s pain and symptoms. She still isn’t really up for visitors, so we haven’t scheduled anyone to visit. She’s also having a hard time keeping up with texts and calls, so don’t take offense if you don’t hear back from her. She loves receiving cards and letters, so please continue to send those. (Mary Cullen Bryan, 1024 State Street, Brighton, Michigan 48116)