I went to the facility very early this morning because I made them another Stuffed French Toast casserole because the whole crew wasn’t there on Sunday morning and I particularly promised 2 CNAs I’d make it for them and they weren’t working over the weekend. Claudia began the day with mom this morning. Mom was asleep when she arrived so she woke mom up by talking to her, putting her hearing aids in, and also by playing some music. Claudia did mom’s full physical therapy/range of motion exercises and then breakfast came. Mom ate a BIG breakfast—cheese omelet, a roll with butter, oatmeal and a whole banana. Using hand over hand prompting, mom peeled the banana. As the music played, mom mouthed, “Who’s playing the music?” She was very talkative. Claudia was on her cell phone with Ava talking about the movie, “I am Sam” and mom mouthed, “I am Sam?” She also told Claudia she had to go to the bathroom a few times as well. After breakfast, Claudia showed mom body part picture cards and one was of a nose and when Claudia asked her, “What’s this?” mom mouthed, “Somebody’s nose. I don’t know.” Claudia also did the Sounds Around the Home CD with mom. With this CD, the person listens to the sounds and tries to find the coinciding picture…Claudia showed her the doorbell picture and mom said, “home” (it is a picture of her doorbell at home). When mom heard the sound of the telephone on the CD, she mouthed, “Ring a bell” but when she saw the next picture, a fireplace, mom mouthed, “telephone” (this could just be delayed processing). When she heard the sound of ice cubes in a glass and saw the picture, she mouthed, “ICE.” For the sound of a vacuum, Claudia gave her a phonemic cue ‘Vvvv….’ and mom mouthed, “Vacuum.” For the flushing toilet sound, mom mouthed, “bathroom” and “someone on the toilet.” Claudia cued her with a ‘D’ sound for the picture of the door and the sound was of a door opening and closing and Claudia said, “a door…” and mom mouthed, “opening.” Then Claudia said, “A door opening and….” Mom mouthed, “Closing.”
I arrived briefly again around 11 and mom was still in bed but she was eating her lunch (sausage, peppers and onions with a roll and some pasta). She was feeding herself in between the aide feeding her as well. Mom was very, very alert and conversational---I think that’s the first time I can truly use that word to describe her!! She was communicating in an interactive way. The recreation therapist and I walked into the room together and mom turned to us as we called to her and said, “Hi.” The recreation therapist asked her how she was and mom mouth, “Hi, I’m fine. How are you?” The therapist then asked mom if she wanted to play Nintendo Wii Bowling with them and mom said, “That sounds good. Yes.” I had to leave then to help Lenny register for classes for next semester. Terry was there though and she stayed with mom. When Terry had arrived, she brought her laptop to play games with mom on—Hidden Pictures is one of the games and mom used to love this game before the stroke. Terry said that mom played the Hidden Picture game on her laptop. Terry scaffolded the activity for mom by pointing to areas to look in and by moving the arrow on the mouse pad for pad. Terry said mom was pointing to different things on the screen. Anthony said mom ate about 2/3 of her lunch. Then, mom fell asleep. Anthony left and Terry and Dad went with mom later on to the recreation room to play Nintendo Wii bowling and golfing. The recreation therapist said mom did well playing the games today.
When I came back to see mom around dinner time, she was in her wheelchair and putting buttons into the slot of the tall, plastic container---it took her a long time to do this, but she was doing it!! Dad had it all set up for her. The head of respiratory put mom back on the vent today from the CPAP mode because he said her CO2 levels were “a tad above my comfort zone.” It is exasperating!!!! Once she is off the vent, we can hear what she says when she talks and she can go to a real rehab center!! I pray God heals her fully and enough to get off the vent. One of the other respiratory therapists said that mom’s norm seems to be in the 30s and 40s…mostly around 43 (total rate). The head of respiratory doesn’t agree though. The other respiratory therapist put her back on the CPAP mode for a few hours. You can see a real, definite difference in mom when she is on the CPAP mode…she is more tired and has to exert all her energy into breathing (for the most part). She is perkier on the vent and more talkative too.
Claudia went back tonight to tuck mom in for bed. They read a baseball magazine together and then mom goofed around with Claudia. Mom nodded toward the TV as if to ask, “What’s on TV?” so Claudia asked if that’s what she wanted to know and mom mouthed, “Yes” so Claudia told her. Mom is using more body language to convey what she wants. As Claudia read the magazine, mom was staring at her and Claudia asked, “What are you looking at?” mom mouthed, “I’m looking at you.”Claudia and mom watched TV and then Claudia tucked her into bed and prayed with mom and left.
“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else” 1 Thessalonians 3:12
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