Mom had a really sleepy day today...I haven't seen her like this in weeks. For part of the day, about 2 hours, she just quietly slept and didn't even move at all. Anthony saw her early in the morning and said she was unresponsive and sleeping. Dad and Claudia were with her midday. While Claudia was doing physical therapy with her, she noticed that, every time she tried to move mom's right arm upward, mom's shoulder area would shake and tremble. Remember that her hands were trembling last weekend. Let me explain again how we do the physical therapy with mom before I continue. Weeks ago, when mom first arrived at the rehab center, one of the physical therapists gave me an 'in-service' mini training on how to do physical therapy with mom. I then taught everyone else. Basically, we start at either her feet or her hands. I start at her hands and work my way around her body. We take her fingers, one by one to a count of 10, and move each one individually. Each finger is straightened up as best as it can be (sometimes her right hand is curled) and we straighten each knuckle then take the finger and bend it up and down to a count of 10 (her toes are done the same way). Then we go back over each finger and bend it up and down at the knuckle to a count of 10. Her wrists are bent to 10 then rolled in a circle to 10. Then we bend her elbow up and down to 10. Then her arm is extended outward at the side to 10 at the shoulder and then lifted up over her head to 10, and then stretched across her body to have her hand touch her opposite shoulder. Each arm is done individually. Her ankles and knees are done the same way her wrists and elbows are. So...back to the trembling. Claudia asked the nurses about it and they could not attribute it to anything they were doing so they told her to go to the physical therapists. The physical therapist came to mom's room and evaluated the situation by manipulating her arms and elbows and shoulders. Then the therapist showed us how to work out any trembling at the shoulder. (I wrote down what she told us to do). The GOOD news is that the trembling is a GOOD thing!!! It means that there is a rewiring of the brain to the muscles that is going on. Her brain is giving her muscles the message to move due to the physical therapy we have been doing with her. We are sort of patterning her movement which is creating memory in the brain. Her brain is sending messages to her muscles to wake up and move...it is signaling her muscles. This is an awesome thing!! The therapist said that we are doing an awesome job with mom and to keep it up. We should be doing physical therapy (a form of passive movement) 3-4 times a day with her. And we should continue the coma stimulation via ice cubes in a plastic bag on her wrists, hands, under arms, face to stimulate her to wake up or follow a command. We should clap and speak loudly to wake her as well. Or place a small vibrator in her palm to make her follow a command and stimulate her.
When I was stretching mom's calf muscle around midday, she bent her knee and tried to push me away while she pulled away from me---very mild motion but it was there.
Mom then had many visitors today...Flo, Joan, Donna, Tom, Donna, Stevie, Tommy, Melissa, Madeline, and Nancy. Tom started to sing to mom and she did open her eyes briefly for us when he did that. Then, everyone stood around her bed and sang "Hello Dotty" to the tune of "Hello Dolly"...it was a poignant moment to see so many people there with her trying their best to wake her in such a loving way. Then, later in the early evening, Fay, from her choir, came to sing to her. Dad returned to be with her this evening and said she was really still very tired.
Mom held the trach line with her left hand today for a while!! Sneaky Pete that she is!! And all her movements were there...just not many at all...very few and in slow motion again...like floating under water.
I know these days of sleep and being "out of it" are part of the healing process and that they lead to a magnificent day later on...but I still hate them so. I have to focus on the positive though---her brain seems to be rewiring!!!
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9
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