Reminder: Things to do when visiting mom:
-Read to her
-Talk to her (this is sometimes hard since she doesn't respond back---but she can hear you)
-Get the sensory bag from the armoire and rub the different textured items on her feet or arms or face or hand and then label the texture---soft, hard...
-Move her wrists, fingers (bend then open straight...)
-Sing to her
-Play music on her IPOD in the docking station (black)
ETC......
Anything you do with her HELPS!!!
Mom started her day with a visit from Claudia and they did her physical therapy, among other things. While doing mom's physical therapy, Claudia said that mom resisted pressure on her left arm!! She said she told mom to "PUSH, PUSH, PUSH against my hand!" and she DID so on command!! Claudia also said that mom's shoulder areas tremored while she did physical therapy on her legs---but when she checked with the physical therapist, she told Claudia that this was a good thing and meant that the brain is sending signals to her muscles to move voluntarily. Claudia was able to calm the tremor after 2 manipulations the physical therapist showed us.
When I arrived to visit mom in the afternoon, I met Suzanne in the parking lot---she was just leaving but decided to come back inside with me. She found mom to be sleepy and less active than last week too. I washed mom's face with cold water and talked to her, then I began her physical therapy. She winced when I worked on her left side arm, hand...her fingers are particularly stiff on that hand. When I got to her right side, she had opened her eyes slightly many times and 2 times widely. She also followed the commands to TOUCH YOUR HEAD, TOUCH YOUR NOSE, TOUCH YOUR MOUTH 3 times!!!! She did it for Suzanne once too! It takes her a very loooonnnngggg time to execute any command and she needs moments of silence between commands or repetitions in order to process what to do and what was said. She puts her whole body into following the commands too---very clever!! To touch her nose, for example, she will gradually and painfully slowly move her hand from the top of her head to her nose while turning her face to be closest to her hand!!
Ava, Sammy, Dad and Marty visited mom tonight. Ava and Sam did her physical therapy but they said she was very tired. The nurse said that many of her trachea parts were replaced between my visit and theirs. She had been coughing a lot these last 4 days.
When I returned to her tonight, she looked happy, good color, and peaceful. I always pray God's SHALOM over mom---which means health, wholeness, completeness, and full functionality, and peace. I tell her always about how much better God's peace is than the place she is in....
Her 75th birthday is in 2 days.....
And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means "the LORD is peace"). Judges 6:24
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