How Time Flies

So it looks to me like the last post was after the first time I spent a night at Ima's. Well it's almost a month later, and I've spent many nights at her place. In fact I am posting from there right now. Her health has actually, on the surface of things improved; a more rational way to put that is that she is in less pain, and on many more heavy duty drugs to quell the pain. After my previous post there were about a week and a half or two of severe pain. Those led to the decision to quit the chemo treatment and join the hospice program. That in turn resulted in feeling better with the help of large amounts of morphine, codeine, and steroids. I don't know exactly what's going on in her body, but my understanding is that the steroids are going to give her a lift for a few weeks, but then her body will grow immune to them and she will start to fade again. The deterioration at that time will take a few shapes. She won't be able to get out of bed; swallowing will be difficult; then she eventually won't be able to breath. There are many drugs they can give her that will minimize the various pains and help create the illusion of ease of breath.
Right now she is sleeping peacefully above me. About the hospice nurse: Ima is sadly her first patient. About that Ima said: "it's just my luck." The nurse didn't instill complete confidence early on, but she is getting a little better with time, and is going to visit two or three times a week from now on. Ima and Sue are also having problems with their relationship, and I think I will also have problems with Ima if I have to keep spending this much time here. I know I will have to continue spending a lot of time here for a few months.
I've noticed a regression in her and I know it's not a particularly original thought, that people as they become older and sicker, begin regressing back to childhood. But it's odd to see it in my own mother. First there was having had to dress her. Now, there is the short attention span, the forgetfulness, the lack of dexterity. And then there is the disappointment she seems to experience from many trivial things. Today, for instance, the Netflix movie didn't come, and she was really disappointed. I suppose if I were living one day at a time it would be devastating if something I expected didn't happen.