Lenny went to see mom early this morning and began her day with her. He readied her for the day and did her physical therapy. Claudia and John and Anthony came to see mom shortly thereafter. Claudia bought many new items for mom to engage in as we continue her activities. I bought some things today too. We are now doing large, oversized pegs and pegboard, nuts and bolts, wooden puzzles that also require matching a picture, oversized tweezers and pom poms to place in a container with holes on top, picture cards, command book, smells, sounds, the IPAD, writing on the dry erase board with markers, mega blocks like large oversized legos, wooden beads to string, large oversized plastic buttons to string, and even a Nerf gun just for cause and effect fun!!! I also brought some books---picture books for her to look at or read. I can't remember all the other items right now. Anyone who goes to visit mom can engage her in any of these activities. We have a bed table in the closet to use when mom is in bed.
During one of her therapies, Claudia held mom's right arm and Anthony prompted her to use her left hand/arm by giving a verbal direction to put pom poms in cup and she did it!! It took her about 30 minutes to place 5 pom poms in the cup with her left hand, but she did it!! Claudia showed Anthony and John all the activities. Mom had a great sense of humor today, the boys had her laughing. John and Anthony were drawing on the dry erase board...they drew a face—but left out mouth and then nose and mom finished the drawing by drawing a mouth then a nose. She made the nose really big and they said it looked like Poppy's nsoe and she laughed. They drew silly pictures and she laughed really hard!!! The boys said they were going to go from room to room drawing and she laughed so hard she cried. They made an adaptive stylus for the IPAD but it doesn’t work—they did the vegetables on the IPAD — the word Jicima came up and John and Anth made jokes about the word and she laughed. They gave mom buttons to string but they have 4 holes and she sewed the buttons rather than string them!! Then she put the buttons through a slot in a container. She tried to stop working after putting a few buttons in the hole instead of continuing...we make her continue.Then Anthony grabbed a pillow case and said, "We have only a few more for you to do “ and mom laughed so hard she cried again!! She still has trouble making choices. Claudia made a choice board of pictures for mom to use. She tends to pick whatever is on the right side. Next, mom put 2 nuts and bolts together. She did all of the clothespin activity where she squeezes and places them on the rim of a Chinese food soup container. She talked a lot but sooooo low, no one understood her. They tried the IPAD in order to do some receptive language but she hits only what’s on the right.
After Lenny and Claudia and John left, Anthony and mom chilled and talked and watched TV. She became quieter. Con and Terry and Anthony Michael and Samantha came next. They all did more of her physical therapy and talked to her and watched "Brooklyn Bridge." At one point, Samantha put her head on mom's shoulder and mom reached over with her hand from the other side and hugged Sammy.
By the time I came to see her later in the afternoon, Con and Anthony and Terry and the kids were leaving. Mom fell asleep around 5:00 p.m. SHE STAYED AWAKE ALL DAY TODAY!!!!! This is the first time she's done that in 4 months.
Poor Claudia did the favor of going to help dad with paperwork gathering for MEDICAID. They spent hours, all afternoon, gathering paperwork. Dad and Mom's house is covered in piles of papers!!! We have almost all of it now. WORD TO THE WISE: Keep ALL your receipts for 5 years back from this point on!!! That's what you need for MEDICAID...proof of where you spent your money, how you spent your money...I came by later on and helped a bit too. Though I was only there an hour or two, I left with a knot in my stomach. It's grueling.
Lenny went to tuck mom in tonight and say prayers with her. He found her with one foot and leg off the bed!!! When he fixed her leg and foot and went back to her other side, she moved it off the bed again!! She is moving quite a bit now. She woke up temporarily and Lenny talked with her and then said good night and that he loved her. She kissed him and said, "I love you too"
"There is surely a hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off." Proverbs 23:18
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