Claudia began the day with mom again this morning and said that she was in the amazing mood. Claudia told mom what she made for dinner last night and mom said, "Ohhh...how delicious." Then Claudia told mom what ingredients she put in the dinner she made and Claudia wrote the ingredients on the white board as she told mom. When mom read the ingredients, she said again, "Wow...delicious!" Claudia also did the calendar with mom and as Claudia showed mom the month, day, year...and told mom, "Today is Monday, March 21, 2011" mom said to Claudia, "I thought it was March 21!" Claudia called Anthony and told him mom was in a great mood and to come right away.
Anthony came early this morning but when he arrived, mom was asleep. She was still in bed so he let her sleep a while. At 10:15, mom woke up. He asked mom to click her tongue and she did. He also asked her to make different faces and mom did. He asked he to make a funny face and she did. Anthony had brought a picture of dad fishing to show to mom. He said he purposely printed it in a 4 x 6 size so that he could ask mom to help him cut out the picture to hang on the wall!!!! Anthony has a definite call in the field of special education!!! He is becoming one amazing teacher to mom!!! He said that mom cut the whole picture out alone!!! It took a while, but she did it!! He then said that, since mom was in bed, he'd try to do her physical therapy/ range of motion exercises and to try to get her to lift her legs. He put the 10 inch ball under each knee, one at a time, and tried to get mom to lift her leg but she only was able to move her feet alternately. They looked at and read the vocabulary book next (someone brought mom a children's dictionary). He said she enjoyed doing this and also tried to turn the pages but couldn't. The Occupational therapist came in next (it was about 11:30 now) and mom was still in bed. The therapist found an aide to move mom to the chair so that the therapist could work on teaching mom to feed herself. Mom wouldn't do it at first, but the therapist knew this was mom's pattern, so she helped mom with the first 2 forkfuls of food and then mom fed herself the next 2 forkfuls. However, mom fell asleep. So the therapist told the aide to finish feeding mom. Anthony teased and said that, as soon as the therapist leaves, mom would wake and feed herself. Sure enough, mom woke shortly thereafter and began to feed herself, so Anthony looked for the OT. When he came back, mom was alone in the room, feeding herself lunch!!! While this is good, it is also dangerous that mom was left alone without mitts eating hot dogs!! Anyway, the aide had seen the OT and ran to get her. The three of them, Anthony, the aide, and the OT, stood at the door and watched mom for a while feeding herself. The OT then came in and praised mom's attempts. Mom not only independently used the fork to feed herself, but she also picked up bread with her fingers and ate that too. Anthony gave mom some thickened lemon water and mom loved it. She drank it all up. Mom drank alone/independently. The speech therapist came in next and Anthony stayed in the room at first while the Speech person worked with mom. The speech therapist told mom to do the easy, simply stuff quickly and they'd move to harder, more challenging things. The speech therapist also took her white coat off and stethoscope as well (as Anthony suggested weeks ago). Mom worked well with the Speech therapist for the first time!!! The therapist asked mom crossword puzzle-like questions like: "What shines bright in the sky at night?" and mom answered, "Stars." The therapist asked mom 5 such questions and mom answered all of them!! Dad came next so he and Anthony left the room so mom wouldn't be distracted while she did her speech session. Anthony said that when he arrived, mom's vent was down from 8 to 7. She was fine. The respiratory therapist came back and lowered it from 7 to 6 next. Anthony thought he saw mom get a little goofy and loopy but the respiratory therapist said mom's numbers were great!! Anthony left and Dad came next. Dad said the speech therapist told him that mom repeated all the days of the week and did wonderfully with her!! Dad said mom was awake but wouldn't do anything with him. He said he did her PT. He said mom had a nice dinner of pizza, soup, blueberry muffin and juice for dinner. He said that mom talked/mouthed alot to him, but he didn't always understand what she said.
Claudia came to tuck mom in tonight. She said that mom was sleeping but she opened mom’s eyes and she smiled at Claudia and woke up and was happily awake. She said, at one point, mom opened her mouth and pointed to her tongue so Claudia asked her if she was thirsty and mom mouthed, “Yes.” Claudia asked someone to get mom a drink but then she found it in the recreation room. Claudia got mom some vanilla milk and mom smiled when she saw it. Claudia put it in the cup that dad bought her and then tried to get mom to drink herself by holding the cup but mom wouldn’t at first. Mom drank and drank and occasionally held the cup. They prayed---Claudia asked mom if she wanted to pray and mom said yes and closed her eyes. Claudia prayed for God to continue to heal her legs, arms, hands, and mind. Then Claudia anointed her with the Rose of Sharon oil and tucked mom in for the night.
Tonight, I was talking to a friend and I was sharing that one of the most important things I am learning through all this with mom, is to learn how to live in the moment. How to focus on only today…how not to look back or to look forward…but just to BE in the here and now. Just to live in today and for this moment. To make the most of today. A hard thing to do…but a lesson well to learn.
“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come…” Song of Solomon 2:11-12
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