not verbal at all

Mom hasn't been verbal at all since yesterday, and while she's now going through the motions instead of sleeping almost the entire day, as happened Tuesday, she still seems sluggish and weak. Once Dad gets back from his dental appointment (our life over the past few months has been punctuated with these appointments), I'll ask him to contact NCI about what's happening to Mom, and whether it's a lingering side effect of carboplatin.

On the speech therapy front, it's been frustrating. Dad has tried several times, on different days, to contact Dr. Benson's office (he's Mom's neurologist), but has only been able to leave messages on their machine or with a receptionist. It may be necessary to drive over to the office and speak with someone in person, if not with Dr. Benson himself. Why the man is so hard to get hold of is beyond me.

We're probably going to take Mom for a walk in a mall today, maybe Pentagon City, much as we did back when my aunt was here. It's too cold and dreary to risk exposing Mom to the weather for an extended period, even one as short as ten minutes. I hope Mom performs well during the stroll; her weakness worries me.


UPDATE, 1:30PM: Mom's been acting strangely as she eats her lunch. I caught her using her fingers to dig around inside her soup, and she insisted on using her fingers to eat some Korean short ribs. I tried several times to get her to stop, but she went right back to using her fingers. This is perseverative behavior, and it fits my intuition that Mom's day-long sleep is a sign of something wrong. when my father gets back from his dental appointment, I'll be asking him to call NCI and whoever else might be of help.


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