Mom Update, December 9, 2010, Thursday

Hi,

I started the day with mom and she was in a great mood. She was happy to see me and smiled. I straightened her up in the bed and washed her face. I put her hearing aids in and cleaned her glasses. I did the range of motion exercises with her and she was very cooperative. The first thing I noticed was that the machine was on and it was on cpap. I became concerned and asked to see a respiratory therapist. The therapist said that her CO2 levels were off. They were a 44 and her range is 35-40. She told me that this meant she wasn't breathing enough. She also said she would check in during the day to see if she could put the colar (oxygen only) back on. WHen dad and John got there in the afternoon the cpap was still on. They told them the same thing and that first thing in the morning they would reassess and try to take her off the cpap. THey said that they had already begun to ween her from a 4 to a 2 (John wasn't sure what those numbers meant but that after a 2 she is taken off the cpap). WHile I was there I also did her leg lifts with the ball under her knee and she lifted her right foot 5x and didn't lift the left at all. I also had her do the exercise with the theraband and she did the right 4x and nothing on the left. I then took out some coupons and drew a black majic marker line on the place where she had to cut and she cut out the coupons. She was really concentrating. I then gave her a choice of her crossword or word search books (they are adaptive, large print with only a few words per page - they also have the answer written lightly in pencil for her to trace). She chose the cross word book. I laminated them so she could use a wipe off crayon. I left her a crayon and the big nut and bolt. Cousin Jo Ann gave mom two pigs that attach by the snout with magnets. Mom loves them so I left them as well. John did nuts and bolts and a few other activites but said that once she was put in bed for the evening she was out like a light. Dad and John stayed so theycould put mom to bed (take out hearing aids and take off glasses). John said he had time to talk to dad and that may have been just as important as working with mom. Let's pray that the cpap is turn off tomorrow when I get there and that she is breathing ok.

Believe in miracles!

Claudia