Jean was supposed to start mom’s day today because Claudia has a sinus infection but Jean couldn’t because he woke up with a sore throat!!!! Dad and Anthony began mom’s day today instead. So please pray for Claudia and Jean. Dad said that mom did eat again today!!! The speech therapist gave her an entire cup of applesauce and a full cup of honey and lemon. Mom ate and drank both! Mom said, “Apples” to everyone as she ate the applesauce. And she said, “Thank you” to the speech therapist when she was leaving mom.
Dad also said that he and Anthony did mom’s full physical therapy/range of motion exercises as well. When they finished, they tried to see if mom could lift her legs and she was able to lift her right leg off the bed about 4 inches and also moved both her left and right feet at the ankle on command!! Mom was throwing kisses to dad and Anthony too.
Carmine came to see mom today too. Carmine said that it is amazing that mom’s cheek muscles are so strong given the fact that she hasn’t been chewing in so long. He gave us some exercises to do on mom’s mouth. We have to put 2 of our fingers together and gently massage mom’s upper and lower lip area in a circular motion to a count of 10 or so. This will stimulate her muscles and strengthen them. Carmine also showed mom the pictures and, in the past, he wanted mom to look at the correct picture. Today, mom was able to actually point to some of the pictures!! Carmine said to hold regular conversations with mom now.
When I arrived to see mom this afternoon, she was in a sweatshirt and sweatpants and sitting in her wheelchair. Her eyes were squinty shut and, when I said hello, she said, “Shhh…” I opened her eyes and she smiled at me. I took out some activities to do. We tried the orange pom-poms and the oversized tweezers. Though mom initially looked excited about doing the activity, she didn’t show much motivation toward doing the activity of grabbing a pom-pom with the tweezer and placing it in a hole at the top of a container. She made several attempts at grabbing one with a great deal of verbal coaxing from me. She didn’t seem to want to do the activity, but we persevered through it! I did some hand over hand prompting for 3-4 and then I lifted 3-4 more up in my tweezer and held it out toward her tweezer and she’d grab it from my tweezer and put it on top of the container. She actually did grab 1 pom-pom on her own and slowly move it to the top of the container!! I cheered and she just looked annoyed at me!! Hahaha! We tried cutting with scissors next. I handed her a rectangular piece of yellow paper with a line on it (placing it in her left hand), then I placed the scissors in her right hand. She grabbed the scissors and held them correctly immediately. She even opened and closed them twice as well. Then she connected the scissor to the paper (I had to hold her left elbow and move her left arm toward her right one in order for mom to make the connection). She cut 2 nice long cuts into the paper but then stopped and wouldn’t continue. She may have been tired as well. After mom was put into her pjs, we tried to do the large, plastic oversized buttons and putting them into the slot in a container. Mom did 2 buttons alone and then had no interest. I asked her if she was going to work today and she said, “No.” Then, I asked her if she wanted to play games on the IPAD and she nodded, “Yes,” but when I showed it to her, she didn’t want to do anything with it. She looked at me at one point and I asked, “What’s wrong?” and she said, “My____hurts” but I couldn’t understand what she said hurt. Then, mom looked at the pictures on the wall beside her bed and pointed at one (I didn’t know which one) so I asked her to point again and she did. I asked her, “Oh, do you want dad?” and she said, “No, my husband.” So I said he’s right here. Dad came next to her and said, “Here I am! Am I your husband?” Mom mouthed, “No.” Dad said, “I’m not? Who am I then? I’m your husband. Are you happy I’m your husband?” Mom then gave him the most disgusted look!!!! Just like she used to long ago when she would get frustrated and disgusted with dad!!! We all laughed so hard!! Dad sat next to mom and held her hand and read the Patchogue Advance to her. Mom sat and stared at him and listened intently to every word he said. We all 3 decided to “chill” for awhile then and just hang out and watch TV. Mom kept watching and reading the closed captioning on and off. She also commented about some of the things on the commercials. I was doing her physical therapy and cutting her nails and she made a painful face before I even cut her nail so I said, “oh, you’re a phoney!!” and laughed and she mouthed “No, I’m not a phoney!” Dad told me something mom did earlier with Anthony’s finger and she laughed really hard. Sister Suzanne told me today that when mom saw her yesterday, mom really recognized her and greeted her with a look of surprise and a big smile. As I gave mom her manicure, she was continuing to grimace on and off so I said, “Gee, I guess I shouldn’t quit my day job, huh? And I was gonna call my new business ‘Dr. K’s Nails’!!!” Mom cracked up so much!!!
At one point, mom took her right hand and grabbed her trach line and I said, “Hey, stop that, you can’t touch that and you know that.” Mom replied, “Why not?” and I told her, “Because touching it is dangerous.”
Mom’s evening CNA told me this afternoon that when she came in to check on mom at 11:00 p.m. last night, mom was awake. The TV was off and she was up and looking around, so the aide asked mom, “Mrs. G, what are you doing up still?” Mom just looked at her. Then the aide said, “You are supposed to be asleep!! I’m telling Jean on you!” with this, mom laughed so hard that her aide also cracked up laughing!
JoAnn got to mom and Dad kissed mom good-bye and mom began to cry --- tears rolling down her cheeks and all. While this is sad…it is also a miracle that she is feeling emotions again. The nurse came in and asked mom, ‘How are you?” and mom replied, “Very good!” and the nurse was thrilled that mom spoke to her. JoAnn showed mom the “Word Search” and “Crossword” books that Claudia made for her with mom. She did the orange, scrunchy tube with mom but mom’s left thumb hurt her. Then, JoAnn looked at the “Getting Better” book and Carmine’s pictures and mouthed the names of the items like, “Church” and then “airplane” for “airport” but it actually was a picture of an airplane. Then they went through all the other pictures and mom just looked at them without talking. JoAnn said that mom mouthed a lot of words but she didn’t always understand what mom was saying. They read, “God’s Little Instruction Book” next…JoAnn turned the pages and mom read and then mom even tried to turn the page but couldn’t –even though she tried really hard. JoAnn said that mom wiggled her tongue and pointed to it at one point too! Mom rested a few minutes and then got a second wind. JoAnn stretched out mom’s hands and fingers told her to do that in order to get better and make perogies and kielbasa at Easter time. Mom gave her a big smile and then gave JoAnn the “look.” Mom held JoAnn’s hand very tightly. While they waited for mom's mitts to be put back on, Mom was stretching the legs of one of her stuffed animals...maybe practicing stretching her own hands/arms?
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
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