Mom had such a great day today!!!!!
I started the day with mom this morning. She had an AWESOME morning!!! Claudia’s birthday is the 13th and her family surprised her with a day in NYC—they are doing “Murder
Mystery at the Museum”—so Claudia!!! She is thrilled!! Mom was asleep when I arrived but looked a million times better than last night at 11:00 p.m. PTL!!! Yesterday, her eyes were puffy and swollen by nighttime and she was very dazed and disoriented. We are sure that the whole occurrence was due to constipation. No temperature since yesterday at 2:00 p.m. and no Tylenol since last night at 10:00 p.m. (only had it at 2 and 10).
Anyway, mom was asleep when I arrived so I said hello and she squinted her eyes tightly shut and smiled. I opened her eyes and she was bright and alert and focused!! I said, “Good Morning, Morning Glory!” and she mouthed, “Morning!” with a big smile. She watched my face and paid attention as I talked to her. Her CNA said that, even though it is shower day and she was ready to shower mom, she’d wait until I finished mom’s physical therapy/range of motion exercise first. Mom’s CNA is such a doll. As I began PT, I asked mom, “So are you ready to exercise now?!!” and she mouthed, “Yes” and shook her head, “Yes” too!! I began by telling her to stretch her fingers open and she DID IT on the right hand!!! Then I began to stretch mom’s fingers. As I do this, I sing what we are doing, like: “Stretch your finger. Stretch your finger…” over and over and I count as we do this too. MOM COUNTED THE WHOLE TIME WE DID PT!!!!! which is about 28 times!!! She counted consistently and consecutively from 1 through 10!!!! Sometimes as I counted, I would stop and say, “OK what number comes next?” playfully and MOM KNEW!!!! She was counting with me!! I decided to see if she could move her legs on her own so I asked her to wiggle her toes. She did it on both feet but only slightly. I CHEERED for her!!! And I made a fuss and she smiled proudly! Then I put the 10 inch ball under her right leg and asked her to lift her leg and waited. Nothing. So I said, “Move your leg” over and over as I lifted it. Then I asked her to “think” hard about moving her leg—as I tapped her forehead and said, “Now you say it and think it mom, ‘Move my leg’” and she mouthed, “Move my leg” over and over and over again as I stood and watched her right leg on the ball…at first, it seemed like nothing was happening…but then, as I watched, I saw her big toe move slightly so I cheered her on, yelling, “You’re doing it!!! You’re doing it!!! Do it mom!! You can do it!! You can move your leg!!!” Slowly, she went from moving her big toe to moving her all her toes (ever so slightly---if you weren’t watching, you would think nothing was happening). Then she moved her foot ever so slightly and THEN…her foot lifted off the bed!!!! Millimeters at a time, but it was moving as she was mouthing, “move my leg” over and over and over again. And then she lifted her foot off the bed ½ an inch!!!! I took a picture of it on my cell phone!! I was screaming and cheering her on! And she was smiling and mouthing, “Move my leg” over and over. I showed her the command cards next that my friend, Maureen, made for her. She read each card…every word…but didn’t do any of the commands except “Wiggle your fingers” and “ shake your head no.” She was reading EVERYTHING in sight!! Looking all around and reading whatever print her eyes landed on. I asked her if she wanted to look at the family pictures and mom mouthed, “Yes” so I took out the pictures and showed her them one by one, asking her, “Who’s this?” with each one. The first picture was Dad’s and when I asked if this was Dad, she mouthed, “No” and frowned at me. So I said, “It’s not? Well, then, is it Jean?” and she smiled, relieved and mouthed, “Yes.” She named the next few people quickly, “Ava, Lenny, and Jean” but when I showed her Anthony, she mouthed, “Emil” (that’s John and Con’s brother). She mouthed, “Cucumber” for Anthony Michael (he loves cucumbers!!). She said, “Family” for all the other pictures. She looked out the window then and mouthed, “SNOW!” and I said, “Yes, there’s snow out there.” Then she looked out again and mouthed, “SMOKE.” (there was smoke out the window too). Next, I tried writing with her but rather than write much---she was veraciously reading all the print on the page!! She did, though, try to trace a few letters but couldn’t at all, and she marked on the white board largely. I showed her some of the pictures of body parts. She read the names of things but couldn’t tell me the names without reading them. I had to tell her to read the names when she didn’t know. However, when she came to the picture of the bare feet, she mouthed, “No shoes?” Aunt Lucy called next on the phone and talked to mom. While mom listened, mom looked at me smiling and mouthed, “She remembers me” and then she mouthed, “Aunt Lucy.” She left for her shower next and when she returned, her CNA said that mom was talking up a storm in the shower to her, but she didn’t understand what mom was saying. As the CNAs dressed mom, she talked a lot to them and they were squealing with delight over it! The 2 CNAs said that they wanted mom to pray for them to find “Good men like Mr. G. A man who is committed to the end and stand by your side always.”
Mom and I started to work in the wheelchair next and she looked at me and mouthed, “Kathy, thank you. Thank you so much for…me” I began to cry and said, “You’re welcome.” Then she mouthed, “I have to…I have to…I have to see dad.” I told her he was coming and she mouthed, “When?” I said he was on his way. We tried to do the nut and bolt but mom couldn’t do it, so I did it with her using hand over hand prompting. As we did this, I told her to think, “Turn…turn…turn…” and she mouthed it as we went through the motions. Mom did reach for the nut and bolt (attached together) with her left hand!! Then, once she grabbed them in both her hands, she twisted them perhaps 1/8 or ¼ way around!!! Next, we did the large, plastic buttons and the soup container with the slot in the top. Mom has to put the button in the slot. Mom and I did the first button using hand over hand prompting. The second button, mom reached for and tried to raise her hand to the container but couldn’t so I moved it toward her hand with the button. The third button, mom reached for and moved to the slot in the container and RELEASED it into the container!! She did it again a 4th time alone! Mom
mouthed, “I need an air tube” twice. I told mom, “I love you” and she mouthed back, “I love you too.” She began to get sleepy then and so I let her rest a bit. Mom began to cough and then took my hand and I said, “What?” she mouthed back, “I’m coughing.” I reassured her. We did the IPAD next and listened to songs on the IPOD mode of the IPAD. Mom was mouthing a lot of the words. Then Anthony and Con came and Anthony had her laughing immediately!! Hysterically!!! They told her that Samantha is taking “Dorothy” as her Confirmation name. Mom read the, “All About Me” book with Anthony and Con. As we showed her each page, we asked her to read the pages but she didn’t ---but the next thing we knew, she was telling us what was on the pages without looking at them!!! She had the book memorized!! Anthony said, “Guess it’s time for a new book, huh?” and mom cracked up laughing!! They did her full physical therapy/range of motion exercises too.
Anthony called later in the afternoon to say that the results of urine sample showed an e-coli infection to be treated with antibiotics for 10 days starting tonight at 6:00 p.m. Dad said that they couldn't get the drug mom was prescribed but he complained about it and they found some in the reserves at the facility until more arrives. They did the chest x-ray - no results yet.
Anthony said that they did hand over hand sewing with the sewing card...mom held both ends and tried to do it herself but could not really do it and stopped. They looked at Carmine's pictures but she began to fall asleep when Dad came. Then she was changed and she woke up! Donna and Tom came. She stayed awake and talked whole time. Tom told mom jokes and she laughed really hard at them. The nurse even commented on how awake and alert and interactive mom was. Anthony and Con did physical therapy again before they left.
JoAnn and I visited with mom tonight and we just sat and talked to her. When we first arrived, JoAnn said, "Hi! WOW! You look great!" and mom mouthed back, "Thank you I feel great." She frequently talked back to us. At one point, she told us, “I have to tell you both something.” Her nurses were so excited to see that she is talking to them (mouthing words and phrases...). I tucked her in and prayed with her and then we left.
I will hold this day so close to my heart for so long....it was truly a gift from God. Amen.
"How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?" 1 Thessalonians 3:9
No comments:
Post a Comment