Claudia began the day with mom this morning. They had breakfast together. She brought mom a homemade wheat germ omelet (one of mom’s favorite breakfast foods). Mom saw it and said, “I like wheat germ in my eggs” and Claudia said, “I know that’s why I made it for you.” Mom ate the whole omelet. Claudia asked mom if she remembered how she ate the oatmeal yesterday from the cup and mom said she didn’t remember so Claudia reminded her and set her up again with the cup in her left hand and spoon in the right but mom couldn’t do it and needed a lot of hand over hand assistance today. Mom did eat about ¾ of her eggs independently with minimal assistance otherwise (Claudia would push the eggs onto the fork with a knife—mom had a hard time piercing the eggs today). Claudia said mom seemed to be in an agitated or angry type of mood this morning. She was sleepy too though and kept falling asleep on and off…not badly though. Claudia said mom’s arms and hands were stiff today. Claudia stretched mom out really well and did her full physical therapy/range of motion exercises. They watched a movie I bought for her and dad called, “New York goes to war” – mom LOVES these movies and documentaries. Mom watched with a lot of interest and they talked about Coney Island, Make Believe Ballroom, Brooklyn Dodgers… Mom watched and listened and often would repeat the things that were familiar to her. There was a pamphlet that came with the DVD and mom read it and held it throughout the movie.
Dad came to see mom next. He said hello to her and she motioned to him as though she was going to kiss him so they kissed and she put her arm around him. He talked to he and then Anthony, Con and Anthony Michael came to mom next. Mom was still in bed even though it was already 12:40 because they are very short staffed on the weekend. Anthony worked on mom’s legs really well. Mom was awake and in a good mood but didn’t talk too much. Mom was put in her chair around 1:00. She took a short nap while they were there. Donna came to see mom and brought her a lovely primrose plant. They talked to mom and made her laugh (as per dad). They also watched the METS game too. Aunt Lucy called to talk to mom and mom listened to her talk but didn’t show any emotion or try to talk back.
When they all left, Terry came to be with mom but mom slept the whole time. She woke to eat an omelet and potatoes for dinner. Then she went back to sleep.
Dad, Claudia and I came to see mom after Ava’s show. Mom was asleep at first but then she woke. Before she woke, one of the respiratory people who we love talked to us about the vent and told us to basically tell the head person that we want mom on the trach collar asap. The therapist said that there is no reason to keep mom as is since she is on the lowest vent rate setting and that the PSV can be lowered but it isn’t imperative before the trach collar goes on. We plan to have Claudia go speak to the head of respiratory tomorrow morning to talk about lowering the PSV to 11 then to 10. Then, of course, to get mom on the trach collar. The person we talked to said that the person’s fear is that mom will be at the same spot or moved backwards on Thursday when the person returns to work. We watched the Channel 13 documentary “New York Goes to War” again and dad told us all about the people he knew who were in the movie. Dad got teary when he spoke about being privileged enough to come home from the Korean War alive when so many others with families and children had died. He said he couldn’t understand why he was chosen to come home alive…we told him it was because God planned for him to have all of us!! Dad knows so much about Long Island…he must be one of Long Island’s last living historians. Mom listened attentively to both the video and dad. I prayed with mom before I left and anointed her. Shortly after I did, Claudia said that mom had a bad coughing fit---no one came to suction her for over 10 minutes while she choked and choked and turned beet red. Finally, someone came after Claudia searched and demanded someone come. Mom settled down then and they sat with her until she fell asleep, then left. Even though this is the 330th day since mom’s aneurysm…it is still so hard to accept or believe that this has happened. But we are lucky and blessed no matter the circumstance. We are still together.
“Give thanks in everything circumstance.” 1 Thessalonians 5:12
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