Hey again, everyone! Things are moving along pretty alright. Mum's shoulder still hurts, but that's been a thing for months I'm pretty sure (I also don't know if I've ever even brought up her shoulder pain). We never really went anywhere to get it checked-- I'm not sure why we're waiting. It's not really a big issue for mom apparently, otherwise I think we would've. She doesn't bring it up often, and her arm seems to be able to move fine. It just hurts when she does it sometimes.

We're probably going to have to call her doctor tomorrow and try and figure out a plan on how to wean mom off of the gabapentin, if this is her last refill. Maybe get her some amitriptyline in case she still needs medication for her neuropathy until we can get her to a point where she doesn't need it anymore. We've still got a whole maybe ~3 weeks worth of pills left, but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared is all.

Mom's memory is, as always, improving gradually. Hard to tell she even has memory problems some days, which brings the biggest of smiles on my face.

We walked further than our usual distance, today! It wasn't an impressive distance-- maybe a block or so at best, really, but still. Glad mom did it. She even went up the bumpy hill in the parking lot without any help, usually she needs help for that. Good progress today, I'd say.

Her leg started to swell a teensy bit once more tonight, but she had forgotten to take her daily medications until like 8PM so that's probably why. She has lisinopril and amlodipine, both for something with her blood pressure (which has been normal for a while now, when it normally wasn't even with them both). Regardless, if her leg is still swollen tomorrow we'll put that compression sock back on her and she should be right as rain. Her leg wasn't shining or anything, and it still felt soft to the touch, plus it was only a little bigger than her other leg, so it's probably not much to worry about.

Now, something that did worry me. She called me into her room a while ago to tell me she had noticed she was drooling a little. This is the first time that's happened, I think. She does have heartburn/acid reflux and she hadn't taken her pill for it until about 2.5 hours ago or so (since that pill's part of her daily medications), and she was eating a bit of grilled food from the barbecue we went to on sunday. I figured it'd be okay to let her have some, since we've been doing alright with keeping her on healthier food and such. It wasn't deep fried or anything, and my grandma even made some food specifically for my mom to be able to eat, the same she makes for her diabetic mother, so it'd be easier on her body. I want to believe it was just from her acid reflux if only to prevent myself from stressing out from another possible medical complication rearing its ugly head, just when we were doing so well for the past few weeks. It was only a bit of drool. She seemed to notice it right away, and it happened while she was eating. Nothing else was wrong. She talked normally, her face was not drooping at all, her speech wasn't slurred, she wasn't tired or fatigued, literally nothing else was wrong. Just some drool that snuck up on her while she was eating, it seemed. I would hope it merely was just a result of her eating some good food-- she does have problems with eating too fast, too. We haven't had barbecue in...well, probably before the pandemic even, really. It's been a while. Grandma cooks really good food.

...But, if it's something else, if anyone has any idea what that is or suggestions...well, better safe than sorry, right? I need to have an idea of what to do in case things start lining up and it seems more and more like something is wrong. I mean, I hate the possibility, but I can't let anything else happen to my mom while I'm caring for her.

On a semi-related note, I really hate this trend of something that could be potentially very scary happening in the dead of night. No clinics to call, nobody to really seek counsel from. Our only option is the hospital, which, I guess isn't really bad, especially if it turns out we need it, but...well, ambulance rides cost like 1k. Mom just started making actual money again at work-- we can't have another bill we need to pay off tacked on, especially if it turns out she's actually alright.