Claudia started the day with mom today. She said that mom was out like a light and extremely sleepy today. She opened mom's eyes and mom kept them open for a short time and Claudia handed mom the soft, textured red, 6 inch ball and mom actually stretched out her fingers to try to put them around the ball. Mom couldn't do it all the way but tried to!!! This is great!! It indicates purposeful movement and also shows memory retention!! Mom fell asleep again then and stayed that way even through physical therapy/range of motion exercises!!
Dad called yesterday to say that the neurologist’s office called and said that mom’s latest EEG came back the same as in October—no changes. This is a good thing.
When I arrived to see mom today, she was fast asleep; but I was told by the nurse that she had been wide awake between the time Claudia was with her and when I arrived. Figures!! Haha!! I noticed Wednesday both times I saw her and today, that she is breathing above the vent nicely while she sleeps though. Mom was in the big recreation room when I came. Sometimes, they put people there so they can watch them better (an aide is with them the whole time---1 aide per 5-6 patients). Mom was in her wheelchair and both arms were dangling straight down off the sides of the chair (pins and needles…circulation…swelling…). No one cares or pays attention. As I lifted mom’s arms back up onto her lap, I noticed that the mitt on her right hand was almost off her hand!! Her right hand is her strong hand---I don’t know if she managed to wiggle it off or if it was never on correctly. I asked the aide in the room and she had no idea, so I went to the nurse’s station and reported it. I asked them to move mom back to her room with me (not easy with the vent in tow but whatever—they had the big TV on in the room and some disturbing murder show was on…they tend to watch these shows or hospital shows when the patients are in there---go figure!). Once we were in mom’s room, I tried to wake her more than several times but couldn’t…so I figured she needed the sleep and let her sleep for a while. I brought work with me – so the time was well spent anyway. At times, as mom slept, she would raise her left arm and her hand would shake and she’d make a scrunched up face…a dream? Pain? Stretching? Who knows. She always settles back down comfortably within minutes or seconds. I also noticed that if I spoke aloud, she would give a slight smile. At one point, after I had been with mom for a little over 2 hours, I stood to lift her left arm back on the chair again (I had been doing this on and off during my visit) and mom felt really warm and clammy…very sweaty. I told the respiratory therapist and she alerted mom’s nurse. In the meantime, the respiratory therapist checked mom’s heart rate (she said it was a little high for mom) and her pulse with the cuff on mom’s index finger. The nurse arrived and took mom’s blood pressure 132 over 63…all good there. She said she’d send the physician’s assistant in to see mom. I also asked her if mom’s temperature could be taken. She said OK but didn’t do it. The respiratory therapist and I chatted as she recorded information on mom’s respiratory chart. She just gave me a look when the nurse left the room and commented, “Good thing you asked for the temperature” and then I told the respiratory person that mom is being introduced to food orally by mouth. The respiratory person said she didn’t know that and thanks for telling her. God help us!!! Two weeks on a food trial and everyone doesn’t know!!! Mom’s male nurse came to take her blood sugar – it was good. The physician’s assistant came to see mom and listened to her breathing through the stethoscope and said he’d be back to tell me how they’d proceed after her temperature and blood sugar was taken. The head of respiratory and the pulmonologist came to see mom and they said she looked stable but the head of respiratory said again that the limiting factor in mom’s further weaning from the vent was the fact that, when she sleeps, she does not consistently breathe above the vent. He wants her to do that. He said that when he comes to see her at 6:30-7:00 a.m. (she is his first stop in the morning), he wants to see her breathing above the vent and she isn’t always doing that. Mom had been breathing over the vent nicely 18-23 and the vent on 10 before the head respiratory therapist and the pulmonologist came to see her but no sooner did they arrive, and the head respiratory therapist spoke about how mom’s numbers would go back down to 10 and it did. The power of words. Please pray for mom’s breathing again. Prayer works. The nurse who initially came to take mom’s blood pressure finally came to take her temperature and it was 100.9 under the arm and then 100.6 rectally. The physician’s assistant ordered blood work and a chest x-ray. The x-ray will show if there is aspiration or pneumonia. Mom also had a urinalysis on the 1st and they are waiting for the results still. They will give
her Tylenol soon. She was wet and sweaty for an hour and a half. I prayed over her and anointed her with oil and she feels cooler now. Dad just arrived and is sitting beside mom holding her hand. Mom’s CNA asked to have mom looked at by the doctor too this morning because she noticed mom was making the grimacing face and shaking a lot again. The physician said it was not seizures (we knew this based on her EEG reports). We remembered that the physical therapist told us a while ago that when the brain makes connections with the body initially—the body shakes. Maybe this is what is happening. At 3:30, mom’s temperature was taken again (rectally) and it dropped to 99.7!! The power of prayer!! The head nurse told the CNA to be sure mom’s temperature is taken every 4 hours and that she gets Tylenol in a few minutes. The head nurse assisted in washing mom and changing her---she determined that although mom had 2 bowel movements already in the last 2 hours, she is constipated. They gave her something for it. Yesterday, Claudia said tht mom told her, “I have to go to the bathhhhrrooommm!” and Claudia told her to just go. She is becoming more aware of her bodily functions again. This is a good thing. As the afternoon progressed and it became evening, mom's temperature dropped to 98.9 then 98 at about 6 p.m. We took dad out to dinner and then to another movie. He enjoys coming with us. After dinner but before the movie Dad and I inquired about mom's chest x-ray and we were told it is being done first thing tomorrow morning. We checked mom and wen to the movie. At 10 p.m. when JoAnn and I checked in on mom, she was cool to the touch but grimacing a lot again...definitely some sort of discomfort. I asked the medication nurse to please give mom more tylenol. We sat with mom until almost 11:00 p.m. then I prayed over mom and anointed her again and tucked her in for the night.
Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today...We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. Hebrews 3:13-14
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