Lenny and I began mom’s day with her this morning. Her CNA and nurse told us that she gave mom the wash cloth and asked her to wash her face and she did it!!! She also combed her hair alone too. Lenny, Claudia and I positioned her in her chair and sat her way up. Again, we asked the respiratory therapist to put the vent down and it was put on 8. When we all arrived, mom was forlorn looking but after the vent was lowered to 8, her eyes opened widely and she became much more animated!!! There appears to be a correlation of some sort between the vent setting and her alertness. Later in the day, when mom’s CO2 levels were taken, they were still good!! So the respiratory therapist decided to leave her on 8. She said that she is here tomorrow and would recommend a CPAP for mom now---this means OFF THE VENT!!!! Just to see how she’d do.
Anthony, Con, Anthony Michael, Sammy, and Ava all came to join the family fun too! We asked to have mom moved to the recreation room today and they moved her. We all had fun together there. Lenny gave mom the dry erase board and wrote “Hi” on the board, but mom wrote a capital “E” all on her own!!! Her nurse was in the room at the time and looked at it and said, “Oh don’t worry Mrs. G, it’s only a reflex!!” and mom laughed so hard!! The nurse said, “Hi” and mom said, “Oh my goodness!!” When Lenny arrived today, he said, “Hi Nonny” and Mom said, “Hi Lenny honey.” Anthony said, “I love you mom” and mom said she loves him back out loud. Mom sat and sewed on the sewing cards. Nonny said out of no were “rub my back’ so Anthony and Claudia went to rub it. Mom spoke over the vent (audibly) “Rub my back.” Con asked, “Do you want me to sing?” and mom said, “Yes” over and over (audibly). Con sang and she said something after that but we couldn’t understand her. Claudia wrote the word “Brooklyn” in script and mom read the word. I wrote her maiden name, “Cholewka” and she said, “Who is that?” (audibly). Debbie and Claudia were dancing and Anthony said, “Hey mom, look they are dancing” and mom said, “Who is?” Con and Ava were kidding around and Con hit Ava (kidding around – dramatically) and mom stared at Con with a mad look. She stared for a long time!
Mom and I went back to her room around 12:30 when everyone left. We did her physical therapy and she helped to do it too! She was able to open and close her hands on command (Stretching her fingers open)4-5 times alone!!! She also used her right hand to stretch the fingers on her left hand open all the way---independently!! Mom also tried to move her wrists (bend them at the joint) independently as well and did it 3-4 times on the right wrist only. Then, I showed mom how the physical therapist wanted her to clasp her fingers together and then move her arms up and down---she did it with by watching me model what to do!! She was able to lift her arms up and down 2-3 times independently while her fingers were clasped!! I set up the IPAD for her with the Tic Tac Toe game and she did really great with the game!! She knows what to do!! She doesn’t play to win yet---or if she does, she isn’t good at that yet---but she knows how to play the game independently!! After the Tic Tac Toe game, we tried the counting game and the writing game on the IPAD…mom did these for a little while but then stopped. I gave her the 3 wooden puzzles next—one at a time. We started with the farm puzzle---she put 6 of 8 pieces in INDEPENDENTLY!!! Next, we did the “under the ocean fish” puzzle, and mom put all 10 pieces in, this was followed by the vehicle puzzle and mom put all 8 pieces in alone!! For each puzzle, I didn’t really let mom sit long to figure out which pieces went where—I only gave it a 5-6 second wait time and then I pointed to where the pieces went and mom followed the direction to place specific pieces in specific places!! I gave her the MAZE coloring book with colored pencils next and she drew inside the lines of each maze. She also colored pictures in a coloring book with crayons for a while as well (she did both these activities for over an hour). The next thing mom did was sew with the sewing cards again.
Someone told me that it would be nice if mom got some mild virus and had to go to the hospital so that the hospital staff could get her off the vent!!!!! When dad came later in the day, mom smiled at him and told him, “I love you” after he said it to her. She also threw him a kiss too. Mom gave me and one of the nurses a “High 5” several times today. I put dad’s hat on her head and mom said, “I’m gonna kill you!” and laughed! When Claudia came at night, we showed her how mom did the puzzle earlier and Claudia began to goof around and get distracted and mom laughed and then she said, “Look what she’s doing!” Claudia had mom do the snap lock beads and she snapped and unsnapped several independently!! Claudia said that mom was in a great mood! They watched TV and chatted and laughed. Claudia gave mom the sketch pad and mom didn’t seem to want it so she gave her the dot-to-dot pad and she said that mom connected numbers in sequence but not entirely. For example, mom connected #1-2 then 11-12 then 7-8…her interest was peaked and she touched it and studied it…then she also traced over some of the lines that were part of the picture. Then she turned the page and traced more lines and then Claudia drew dots from 1-10 and mom lifted her pencil and connected 1-2, then lifted the pencil and connected 4-5… After a while, mom didn’t seem to want to do this so Claudia gave her magazines and mom flipped through the pages. Next, mom took one of her arm pillows and put it on her stomach and hugged it; so Claudia asked if that’s where she wanted it and mom grabbed it tighter. Then she seemed to be falling asleep but when Claudia turned down the lights, mom opened her eyes quickly and widely as if to let her know that she wasn’t ready to go to bed. They watched 5 episodes of MASH and 1 of Mary Tyler Moore---mom picked out which one she wanted to watch and made choices. Then mom got sleepy and Claudia dimmed the lights and tucked her in and mom’s mood seemed to change.
Earlier in the night, around 7:00 p.m., when Dad and I got ready to leave to go to a late dinner we said good bye. As I kissed mom’s forehead and told her I loved her, I asked her if she loved me too---earlier, when I left briefly to go to the store and asked mom if she loved me, she said, “No” and I laughed because I knew she wasn’t paying attention or thought not anyway. Dad had said, “What?!! What do you mean you don’t love Kathy? You love her don’t you?” and mom replied, “No” again. I just laughed and chalked it up to her being a “character” at times. Well, this time, when I asked her if she loved me and said good bye, she looked up into my eyes with a childish face and made the sign of the cross---not once but 3 times!!! As if trying to tell me something in an expectant way…She remembered that I pray with or over her every night before I leave her or come to check on her and she was asking to pray with me now!!!!! I began to cry and held her hand to pray as we do when she is awake at bedtime and mom closed her eyes tightly as I laid my free hand on her forehead and prayed with and over her…imparting the blessing I always do at night over her: “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Father we thank You for mom and for all that You are doing to heal her Lord and to restore her to full health again in memory, mind, spirit, cognition. And I pray, PEACE, SHALOM. All wholeness, completeness, fullness of health and healing and functionality. PEACE, SHALOM.”
“…the Lord is good...” Psalm 34:8
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