My Mom the DARE Instructor and her Medical Marijuana Card

The first week of November brought the shipment of brownies and Dad was now using the tincture in the morning and noon every day and a brownie for dessert every night. If Mom was having a tough day he would leave out an extra brownie for her. They definitely kept her anger at bay. Mom was still taking her Ambien to sleep at night, but I think the added brownie she was now getting for dessert was finally letting her get some better rest at night.
 
The first week of November also brought the last trip to UCSF Mom would take. She was scheduled for the first week of December but we will get there shortly. There was no real physical change in the test results from September to October to November. The motor skills test showed other results. Following most commands or instructions were next to impossible now. If you asked her to touch her nose she wouldn't, she just didn't understand. It wasn't that she couldn't touch things, if her nose itched she would scratch it, she just didn't understand when you asked her to do something. With the lack of physical change and the rate of her deteriorating motor skills the Dr's were guesstimating that she would be here til roughly February or March. I knew my Mom was terminally ill but the moment you're given a date is very surreal.
 
Mom was still mobile at this point. Even though she had started to use a walker to get around you still had to keep track of her because she would go out the front door and down the street within a moments notice. The obsessive compulsive habit to constantly rearrange things like her dresser drawers or clean the kitchen intensified at this point. She was constantly feeling like she had forgotten to do something and she often stopped in the middle of sentences would have a long pause and then just say "I don't know." 
 
With the Holidays coming up we were trying to decide when we should fly out. Thanksgiving used to be a grand production for my Mom, it was when she transitioned her house into her version of the North Pole and we knew we were the ones who got to put out all her decorations. We knew this year it would be nothing more than just a Thursday for my Mom now so rather than fly out for four days for Thanksgiving we decided we would fly out for the 2 week winter break the kids got from school in December. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

 
Thanks Nerd! It's a shame it sometimes takes moments like these for people to have life changing decisions.
 

 
Thanks Pak! It's the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with.
 

 
You're not the first person I've heard say that. Welcome to my Mom's story Return
 

 
Thanks mike!! Really glad you could make it! A few Nor Cal growers played a key role to this story without knowing.
 

 
Thanks Balanced! Welcome to the story!
 

 
Thanks majorbotany ! My GC family has definitely helped me out when I needed them most!
 

 
Thanks Semi. Sorry for your loss. Welcome to my Mom's story!
 
 
Ok everyone sorry for the delay in the story. My last trip across the country ended up with me getting stuck in Chicago for a few days with the bad weather. Once I get caught back up I will continue to share this journey.

 

The rest of November seemed to pass by without any major incidents, by the time Thanksgiving had rolled around even though no formal plans had been made, 25 friends and family members still showed up to my parent's house to celebrate. My sister's 3 kids even managed to put out one of the Xmas trees they had in storage while my Mom watched with a smile on her face. My Mom was still taking her daily walks with my Dad, she just required more stops along the way to sit down on the seat built into her walker now. She didn't really participate in conversations now, and when she did talk it was never more than a sentence or two.
 
The Sunday after Thanksgiving my Aunt was over at the house visiting with my Mom when she managed to slide out of her seat on her walker and ended up flat on the floor. Mom had started to lose her mobility and no matter how hard my Dad and Aunt tried they could not get Mom back up. They had to call the paramedics out to help get my Mom up off the floor and back into bed. Hospice brought out a hospital bed later that afternoon and Mom began sleeping in that.
 
As soon as my Mom was diagnosed at the end of August my Sister began taking the 3 hour drive from her house to theirs once a week and staying one night at the house to give my Dad a break as well as see the progression on my Mom. She would drive down on Tuesday mornings after she dropped her kids off at school and then leave the following morning, it was during these drives home on Wednesdays that she would call me and tell me how Mom was doing as well as how Dad was holding up. After a great review for Thanksgiving I wasn't prepared for the phone call the following week.
 
When my Sister had called me on Wednesday Dec 4th everything had changed. Even though my sister tried to hide it I could hear the panic in her voice. She said Mom had really started to become rigid and wasn't moving very well. She had become very unresponsive to conversation and when she did talk now she was only saying a word or two. The tremors had returned and now were not just staying in her hands and arms, her feet and legs were slightly twitching now as well. For the first time my Sister did not think my Mom was going to make Xmas, I hung up the phone and booked the first flight out to CA the next day.

 

I think I have to give fair warning from here about the rest of this story, the description I give from here will be my personal account of my time in CA and the experiences I went through with family. I have not been able to sit down with anyone besides my Dad and Sister to talk about this yet, I'm not really sure I've been ready to. My wife and close friends have given me the space I needed and the support to get through this so I think it's only fair I answer their questions about what I went through here in this thread.
 
I understand anyone from not following along after this point as the rest of this story will not be for the faint of heart.
 
I do want to add for those that don't follow along from here that while my Dad had a lot of skepticism about the use of MMJ in the beginning he did see the difference it made in my Mom's anger issue. Prior to the HARLEQUIN tincture arriving they had lost the ability to take Mom anywhere, have friends over, worry about her hurting herself, or worse yet maybe hurting my Dad. Afterwards her anger all but disappeared, even the shakes and tremors in her hand had been greatly reduced. After the BLUE DREAM/GIRL SCOUT COOKIE BHO brownies arrived and she began sleeping at night again, her quality of life was as good as we could have made it for her then. 
 
I capitalized the strains that were used and I'm hoping the Nor Cal blades can figure out which blade helped me directly and the two that helped out indirectly, I don't want to risk getting anyone in trouble so I have left their names out. I know the blade who helped me directly has thanked them for me and when I figure out a way to really say Thanks I will.
 
Thanks to all those that followed along and again I understand if you decide not to go on. Reading about someone else's experience with a gruesome death can be trying for some. For the rest of you that continue I appreciate your thoughts and prayers as this was a difficult time.