I started mom’s day with her this morning. I found her leaning to the right side of the bed almost into a pillow. I straightened her out, which took a while, and then she combed her hair. I did her full physical therapy, and as I did, she tried to assist me by either moving her arm a bit or hand, or by lifting the blankets so that I could manipulate her legs for her. We began to read her “All About Me” book. She mouthed the words after much prompting to do so. The CNAs came to dress and wash her finally.
Lenny came and began to work on the IPAD with mom. He tried Super-Reader word games. One of the games involves reading a sentence with a word missing, another he tried has to do with finding a rhyme, and finally, he played one with a matching game (matching animal pictures). Mom participated but half-heartedly. Lenny tried to work on a wooden puzzle with her next, but she wasn’t interested. They watched TV for a few minutes until Claudia arrived.
Claudia brought something new---large paper clips—oversized. Then mom placed3 on the edge of a piece of cardboard. Claudia tried the snap lock beads with mom. She struggled with them yesterday but today she pushed 3 together and unsnapped about 6 all independently. We took some other video footage as well. We practiced sitting up independently and mom was able to sit unaided for a few seconds!!!! She held the arm of the chair to support herself at one point too. She also tried to move her leg but only managed to move her foot at the ankle.
Anthony, Con, Anthony Michael, and Sammy and dad came to join us next. Sammy sat and sewed with the lacing cards with mom together. Mom sewed on the card and was able to make a knot again. Mom spent a lot of time sewing with Sam. She seems to love to sew. She used to do embroidery and tatting and crewel years ago.
We all played Family Feud with the nerf guns! Mom is getting really good at it. We promised to make her a few targets of various people here who she doesn’t like! Haha! There’s a gun that works like a fan that shoots a disc. Mom gets trigger happy with it and won’t let go of the trigger. Anthony said, “We’ll show them ‘functional’ – we’re gonna bring in some fruit and you can put it into this thing so you can make smoothies for them!!” Mom laughed so hard! The kids and mom had fun playing with the nerf guns.
At times, it seems as though mom’s cognitive ability outmatches her ability to express herself. After Anthony, Con and the kids left, Claudia and Dad did the “Sounds at Home” listening game but Claudia had the idea to take pictures of items in mom and dad’s home to use as the pictures in the game. Claudia tried the clothespins again but instead of using the edge of the cup, she used the edge of a long small picture easel.
Mom used the scissors to cut lines on pieces of construction paper for a while next. She did really well. She was even able to cut a CIRCLE today!!! Independently! Her problem solving ability was amazing to watch. As she tried to problem solve how to turn the paper in her left hand in order to continue to cut with her right hand, she did what looked like the equivalent of a “physical stutter” (similar to when someone stutters verbally). She put the scissor close to the paper without touching it, then moved it away and then back again and she repeated this process over and over until she finally decided to tear a small piece of excess paper off in order to leave room for the scissor to work freely and unobscured. We tried a triangle and mom took a while to cut it without making a mistake. She went off the line a few times and tried really hard to plan how to get back on it. It took her quite a while….14 minutes but she did eventually get back on and finish the cut. Her perseverance is amazing…especially for small, fine motor tasks like cutting and sewing. Her motor planning fascinated me during this process. She tried to snip tiny pieces of paper from the edge of the excess piece of paper in order to work her way into the middle of the paper where the line to cut was. As she cut, we played a CD that had music by Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Chopin and Cremieux; a mix of waltzes and romance. What appeared to confuse mom as she cut shapes like the triangle, is that the lines of the shape didn’t touch the edge of the page…so she had to plan where on the edge to begin the task so that she could eventually meet the line.
I left to go home for a couple of hours and dad said that mom and he looked at magazines and talked while I was gone. He said that, as he talked, she would comment with, “Yup” or “No.” Dad and I went to dinner and Claudia returned to be with mom tonight and to tuck her in later on. She said that, at one point, as mom slept, she looked like she began to become upset and started to cry as she slept---while this is sad for mom to be distressed, it is also encouraging. According to the books I’ve read on strokes, many people do not dream for a long while until the brain heals to a point where it is once again capable of dreaming.
Mom and Claudia played with a “magic” paper from the toy store…you scratch at the paper with a pencil and a picture appears. Mom did that for a long time. They also watched MASH together and laughed at many of the jokes. Claudia had her I-Touch and mom reached over and took it out of her hand. Claudia put the VEGETABLE program on and mom traced the vegetables with the pencil. She would look up and watch TV and then draw again. As Claudia did physical therapy on her feet, mom giggled. She tucked mom in and shut the lights and put the timer on the TV.
Day 9 in a row that mom is awake and alert during the day!!!
"Know therefore that the Lord you God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His Covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands" Deuteronomy 7:9
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