San Francisco Outings

Mom achieved a very important goal on Sunday - she attended the celebration for Sr. Anne at St. Mary's in San Francisco!  It was a wonderful event and we were all so very, very proud of Sr. Anne.  After the service we went over to St. Rose Convent for a reception, honoring Sr. Anne.  There were so many people at the party and all were amazed to see Mom and how well she is doing.  She enjoyed visiting with all the family, friends and religious.

Mom and her three sisters
Marge, Sr. Anne, Mom and Jean

On Monday we were back in the City for an appointment with Dr. Wang.  He removed the drain from the surgery site and also the salivary bypass tube.  Mom was such a trooper!  It was an unpleasant procedure having the tube taken out through her mouth, but as we would expect - she handled it with incredible toughness.  I think the doctor was surprised at how tough she actually is!

She is scheduled to have a Barium Swallow Test on August 30th, and then meet with the speech pathologist and Dr. Wang immediately following.  This test will show whether or not she is ready to begin taking liquids orally.  Let's keep our fingers crossed for that one!

We also got to see a few of our friends, the residents that took care of Mom daily at Mr. Zion.  Dr. Burke, Dr. Cheng and Dr. Pross were all at the clinic while we were there.  It was nice to see them again, and for Mom to show them how well she is doing.  I think she could truly be their "laryngectomy poster child"!

Today, we will be going back down to San Francisco to meet with Dr. Nakakura, a Gastrointestinal doctor.  He will check Mom's feeding tube to be sure all is well in that area.  This should be a quick, routine check and we will be on our way back to Napa.  Mom is handling these trips back and forth to San Francisco really well.

I will post again soon when we have more updates.