Claudia and I both started mom’s day off together early this morning. We gave mom her comb and she combed her hair independently (right side only but top, back and bottom). Claudia did her full physical therapy. Claudia’s morning routine with mom begins with mom reading her, “All About Me” book. You could tell by watching mom’s eyes that she tracked each line in the book, but wouldn’t read out loud or mouth the words either. Next, mom did the nuts and bolts. She was able to screw 3 together alone. Mom tried sewing next and she did a great job!! She was able to put the lace through the hole from the top and then grab it from underneath and feed the lace back up to the top from underneath!!! (Claudia and I videotaped her doing these things – on the QT of course). Mom sewed for a long while. We tried the wooden puzzles next. She appeared either confused or bored with this activity but we continued it with a lot of modeling and hand over hand assistance. We spent some time doing the “snap-lock” beads with mom next. After a lot of assistance, modeling, and verbal prompts, mom was able to push one of the beads into the other and, if we held one end of a chain of beads and she held the other, she was able to pull 3 or 4 beads apart. We also showed her a visual prompt during this activity as well---we wrote the word ‘PULL’ on a small piece of paper and showed it to her. After she saw the direction in writing, she seemed to be able to complete the activity better.
Claudia left and, while the CNAs dressed and washed mom and moved her to her chair, I went to TARGET for more goodies. I bought mom a new “Olivia” pig stuffed animal. Mom loves pigs. I also bought a few Olivia story books, some bubbles (for her to blow so that she can improve her breathing). The respiratory therapist who came in this morning said that we should encourage mom to take deep breaths, or to laugh a lot (it has the same effect), or to talk. She said that the vent is doing most of mom’s breathing right now. She pointed out that mom is making great gains and that the gains vary according to the person. She reminded us of a patient who had no family members involved in his recovery from a stroke. This man was on a vent, in a coma…just like mom. After a year, he was off the vent and breathing on his own. Yesterday, the head of respiratory and the lung/pulminologist came to see mom and said that they had hoped mom would be breathing more on her own by now, but that she is making vast cognitive gains. Everyone is hopeful that mom will get off the vent soon---it is just going to take time.
Mom and I read some Olivia books and then dad came. Mom worked on cutting with scissors next. She was able to cut on a straight vertical line. She also made many random vertical cuts across the page and cut the paper in many pieces. I tried to see if she could cut a circle and she made it about 1/6 of the way around. Dad and I played with a new toy I bought her today, a gun that shoots round discs…she pulled the trigger and we ran to catch the discs. She seemed to like this. I tried the bubbles next. Terry had just arrived. She loved the bubbles…but the type I found were cheap…not very good. They were the only kind that TARGET had…in the party favor section. Mom tried many times to blow bubbles (she couldn’t, and the bubble wand didn’t hold the bubble soap very well either). I will buy more some place else to try with her.
Well, Terry is the family artist, so she took out the crayons and coloring books and tried to color with mom. She did well with this…coloring for more than 1 hour and 10 minutes. Mom actually tried to color in the lines and was able to do so. Next, Terry and mom strung some large, flat, wooden beads shaped like fruits. Terry helped her by holding 4 beads and mom put the lace through them. Dad and Terry then did the wooden barbecue puzzle with mom. This one has wooden tongs and knife, along with wooden skewers and pieces of food for shishkabob! Peppers, onions, beef, tomato, shrimp… I wrote on the dry erase board, “Put the onions on the stick” and mom did it. We transitioned to reading for a short while using the dry erase board. She read, “Therese Marie” then “Put the onions on the barbecue” (it actually said stick not barbecue), then she read, “Pop has a big nose.”
Anthony and Con came to join us all. Mom began to smile a lot as soon as she saw Anthony. She used her new nerf gun to shoot darts for a while. Anthony and Con sat and talked with mom for a while. Of course, he had mom laughing a lot!! Mom reached for Con’s lips and she said, “Oh you like my lipstick?” but Anthony said, “No Con, she thinks you should shave!” Mom went hysterical laughing!
We had mom try to blow a tissue…Anthony had her taking a deep breath. She tried to talk to Anthony and Con too. She mouthed a lot of sentences—some were intelligible but some weren’t. She was trying to lift her leg independently…managed to wiggle her foot, bend at the ankle. While I did her physical therapy, Anthony said, “Hey, while Kathy does your PT, you can do mine!” Mom laughed.
We all sat and watched TV with her and talked. Mom said, “Leave me alone” “I’m tired” and a few other things…audibly. When we left mom to go to dinner, she kissed dad. He told her he loves her and she said, "I love you too" then she took his hand in hers and kissed it over and over. When I kissed mom good-bye, she kissed me back. I told her I'd be back to see her later tonight and she said, "Don't rush" --- hmmm.....that could be taken any one of a number of ways!!! hahahah!!!
Lenny and I came back to tuck mom in...she was asleep but woke as we began to pray over her. The 3 of us prayed together and she fell back to sleep.
Day 8 in a row that mom is awake and alert!!!
"Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Isaiah 35:10
No comments:
Post a Comment