Mom's Poker Face

I hate to say mom isn't doing well again, but she's not. This time it's a bit different.

She doesn't have a fever. There was no fall. She's just going down.

I give her a few weeks. She gives herself that as well.

She is having bad pains in her side, and her side is hard as a rock.

On a lighter note, my sister came out from Washington, D.C. and stayed for a few days this past weekend. On Saturday night we set up a poker game. To our surprise, mom wanted to play to. My sister had never played Texas Hold'em, and can't bluff worth crap. My husband thinks he can, but really can't. I underestimated mom.

She can't eat, can barely stay awake, but damn can that woman play poker! She bluffed her way into the lead, raising $1000 in chips in a game with a $20 buy in!

Talk about a poker face. Maybe it was years of experience. Maybe it was the morphine.

Either way, she was good. She didn't want to play for long. That was probably a good thing for us rookies.

OK, back to the sad stuff. Mom cut back on her pain meds because she thought they were making her constantly tired and giving her a lump in her throat. When the meds were down, she was still tired, had the lump, but the pain came back - so I told her to take more again.

Last night she said, "I'm sick of being sick."

This morning she told me, "I hope this is over soon, I don't want to feel like this anymore."

I don't want her feel like that anymore either.

She says she is still not depressed or anxious, and ready to go.

I believe her, despite her poker face.