Hi everyone,
Kathy is still sick and now Lenny is worse than Kathy! Anthony is also sick but getting better. I started the day with mom and set her up for the day. I did PT with her (range of motion) and put in her hearing aids. All was well this morning except for the fact that the C-pap was on! Ugh! Two steps forward and one step back! I spoke with the respiratory therapist and she said that her CO2 levels were low and she had labored breathing. She assured me that mom would be off the machine in the morning. I set mom up with the large magna-doodle, a sewing card and a toy that she uses her fingers to push a trigger and spin a wheel. When the wheel spins it makes sparks (light). It is a toy from when I was a kid. She has to think about how to place her fingers and then use her pointer and middle finger in opposition to her thumb. When dad arrived mom was playing with the toy. Dad said she was really concentrating. I aways leave the TV on when I leave in the morning also. Ava and I came back in the early evening and sat with dad and mom. Mom was sleeping. I washed her eyes, which were covered in gunk. This woke her up and then she listened to Ava talk. Dad knocked something off the window ledge and mom said, "What was that?" Dad left for the night and Ava and I had mom do a puzzle. She needed a lot of assistance because she wanted to just play with the pieces and not use the puzzle for how it was made. I am trying not to let her do a lot of off task behavior because with frontal lobe injury, there is a loss of attention span and executive function (the planning of how to learn). I don't want to her to get into the habit of not completing a task. It isn't the task that is so important (like putting together a puzzle) but the fact that she can do the task from start to finish and not be distracted. When she was done I had her take out each piece and put them in the zip lock bag. Next we played the "Sounds Around the House" game with the photos from her house. She just needed to be told to point to the correct picture rather than grab the picture. Pointing in response to a request will be helpful in the future when we have to ask her questions and have her respond with a point. I know she gets frustrated and looks at me like, "What is the big deal if I point" but there is a method to my madness. After the game she fell asleep. You can tell when she is taking a cat nap and when she is in a deep sleep, and she was in a deep sleep. I waited a little while and tried to wake her, but she was out cold. Ava and I stayed for a while and then started to get her ready for the night. I shut the lights, took out her hearing aids, took off her glasses and gave her the night time "lovies" (Soft blanket animals). She is always holding the soft "lovies" when I get there in the morning.
Just an aside, we reserved the recreation room for Christmas Eve. Our family will celebrate Christmas Eve together as usual. Dad plans on spending the night with mom on Christmas Eve into Christmas. He doesn't want to wake up CHristmas morning without her.
Please continue to pray for my family to get healthy.
Peace, Love and Joy this holiday season to all!
~Claud
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