Dad and Aunt Sophie came to see mom today too, so did Claudia, Terry, Anthony, Con, Sammy, and Anthony Michael. Anthony did mom’s full physical therapy/range of motion when they arrived. Sammy wrote that “Poppy asked nonny if she loved him and she mouthed yes.” Claudia said that dad asked mom for a kiss and she opened her mouth! Sammy also wrote that “Poppy asked nonny if she saw the snow and nonny said ‘yeah’ out loud.” Anthony, Con and the kids had mom try the marker and dry erase board and they wrote that mom made small lines on the board…it took a long time, they wrote, but she did it!! Con and mom worked with the orange tube and mom held on tightly as Con pulled the tube. This builds her arm and hand muscles. Sammy also wrote that “Poppy asked nonny if today was a good day and nonny said out loud, ‘it was good.’” Thom, who is a speech therapist and expert in assistive technology and good friend of our family, came today to assess mom. Thom worked on the IPAD with mom and had her move the pictures on the Drawing Pad app using her thumb. He also had the stylus in mom’s hand and facilitated her pressing the IPOD Touch to advance the pictures. They tried the lacing card and mom closed her thumb and pointer fingers to grab the lace. Claudia did mom’s full physical therapy/range of motion exercises later in the afternoon. Thom did 20 minutes on Memory with mom using an adaptive grasp. Mom didn’t move at all at first then raised her arm and picked 2 cards then raised her arm and hit the “back to menu” button. Thom did a thorough evaluation on mom and said that, as mom mouths words, she is not only using her mouth and tongue, but her vocal chords as well (they vibrate and there is vibration in her throat). This is a great sign that mom is trying to speak. However, as Ava said, mom should not speak aloud while on the vent because doing so can cause nodes to form on her vocal chords. Thom was not sure that mom is ready for a Passy-Muir valve yet because, while on the vent, it takes some cognition to maneuver. When I arrived tonight, Terry was with mom, holding her hand and watching that mom didn’t go anywhere near her trach tubes. Terry talked and talked to mom. Mom’s eyes were closed the whole time we were there and she kept squinting as if in pain maybe. Terry said that she told the nurse to put some cream on mom’s face because it was chapped badly and the nurse put some cortisone on it. Terry put the long, soft frog toy in mom’s hand because Terry said that mom was rubbing her face with it. Terry said that mom laughed a lot today. Mom moved her arms around a lot tonight and moved her hands to her face and lips a lot too. Terry and I rubbed mom’s hair and face to relax her and Terry sang to mom really softly too---as Terry sang, mom’s feet went up and down to the beat of the music. Terry sang, “High Hopes” and “Playmate” (mom mouthed some of the words to that song with Terry), and Terry also sang, “Do Ships Have Eyes When They Go To Sea?” (when she sang that one, she asked mom if she remembered it and mom said, “I remember”). Terry also sang 2 songs mom’s dad used to croon—“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and “You Are My Sunshine.” Terry and I tucked mom in for bed and prayed.
"You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;" Daniel 2:37
No comments:
Post a Comment