I fell asleep when I came home last night and didn't post mom's daily update for Monday!!
She had an awesome day!!! THE BEST YET!!!
She began her day yesterday sleepy but could be aroused to open her eyes. I saw her at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and then at 1 p.m. At one point when one of the cleaning people entered her room, she had her eyes open. The woman began to get teary and "knocked wood" (prayer is so much better!! hahaha!) and she said, "Oh, Mrs. Gilman, it's so good to see your eyes open."
We've been playing music on her CD player, but Monday I brought her IPOD and we used headphones to play music. Mom loved it. She immediately put a serious, contemplative face on and listened intently. First, I played Mozart (from her collection) then I played the Andrew Sisters. The first dose of music in the morning was 30 minutes, the second dose later in the early afternoon was 15 minutes. Then, later that night, when Claudia came, she played music out loud in the room for a while. During the music playing, mom lifted her arm and moved her foot.
[By the way, in reference to mom's left arm not being elevated, and her feet not floating on a pillow, Claudia addressed the issue with the head nurse who informed her that they'd be doing an "in-service" training on the issue so that everyone would know what to do. I guess the CNAs don't already know about this type of care???]
New things mom did Monday:
-She now consistently grimaces when you scratch her right foot at the bottom
-She said, "OW!!" 2 times again when I was stretching her fingers on her left hand
-She said, "Oooouuuu" 2 times when I was stretching her thumb on her left hand (new sound!!!)
-When Shelby came for speech, Mom showed her how she could follow the command, "Wipe your chin" and she did so independently 4 times!!!! She was so cute!! Once, she moved her hand up to her chin almost touching her chin but it was as if she couldn't reach any higher with her hand, so she lowered her chin into her hand instead!!! Another time she did the same thing but also stretched out her lips to reach her hand too! Then----another time, she reached her chin and couldn't move her hand back and forth so she moved her head side to side on the wipe in her hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-She is consistently responding to pain with her left foot!!! and is moving is more too!!
THE BEST PART OF MONDAY was at night when Claudia and Rie were there. Claudia said that Mom was listening to Rod Stewart singing, "I only have eyes for you" and suddenly, mom opened her eyes widely and naturally and began to look all around the room in a confused way as if to say, "Where am I??? What am I doing here???" She didn't seem to recognize Claudia---though she did look at her once clearly---but moved her head all around looking at her surroundings in a confused way!!!!!!
The Respiratory Therapist said that he felt that mom would definitely come off the vent because she is breathing well.
"See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands." Isaiah 49:16
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