Mom started her day with Claudia. She was sleepy. She did her PT and her arms were able to be raised really high. Her left hand was also easily manipulated. Claudia brought the Sunday paper and she gave mom the entertainment sections. She didn’t have much interest until she saw the section with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. She was very interested and
Claudia read parts of the article to her. Her aide came in as Anthony and Con came and she was put in her wheel chair. Claudia left and took the sports page with the Mets line up. She enlarged the description of each player putting two on a page. She made a “Mets Book” so mom can keep up with the team. Mom had a Mexican omlette, whole wheat bread and oatmeal with the vanilla milk and 2 juices and her coffee. She ate it all. She fed herself about ¾ of the meal alone.
Con and Anthony came next to see mom. When her lunch came, Claudia, Anthony and Con told her that her lunch looked good and mom mouthed, “Bull…” in a disgusted way. Con asked mom what Ava calls brussel sprouts and mom mouthed, “Broccoli balls” and that’s the truth. Mom ate meat lasagna and brussel sprouts and juice and cake for lunch. She did well feeding herself, piercing and scooping when everyone pretended to ignore what she was doing. It takes her a long, long time to feed herself but she is doing it. They were reading the Sunday paper and there was a word that Con was reading aloud and trying to pronounce and mom mouthed, “APPOMATTOX.” They all just with her and had a conversation around mom or she wouldn’t eat. She didn’t like everyone staring at her eat. After mom finished eating, Anthony and Claudia had mom laughing as they told jokes! Mom was wearing her MET hat and watching the MET game. Anthony and Con brought mom a DUNKIN DONUT coffee---the first one in 10 months!! YES!! She liked it.
The nurse told us that mom’s blood pressure was 200 over 100. They gave her the Labatalol (was getting it every 12 hours) and switched it to every 8 hours. They added Lasinapril which is a blood pressure medicine too. By 9:20, mom’s pressure dropped to 160 over 70. This made us wonder if mom is being given a low sodium diet or not. When I arrived today, I asked about it and mom is on a regular but mechanical soft diet…which means they cook with salt. I am planning to speak to the Dietician tomorrow about a low sodium diet along with whether or not we are allowed to cook for mom too. I am going to ask the Speech Therapist about whether we are allowed to feed mom now too. I spoke to the nurses and found out that all mom’s tests came back good, except for the urinalysis---but no antibiotic is being prescribed because mom is not “symptomatic.” I picked up a menu and mom and I read it together to try to pick foods she likes to eat. She didn’t participate much though. To practice stabbing with the fork, the Occupational Therapist said to have mom press with crayons to draw or write or make marks on paper. Anthony said we should try chop sticks and clay for mom to pierce.
Mom slept a bit on and off during our visit. I had brought a copy of “Bird Watchers Digest” to give to Anthony but mom grabbed for it. When everyone left, mom turned the pages of the magazine and read a few lines here and there. She was interested in an article about sparrows and another about finches. As she read, she watched the MET game in between. Mom kept falling asleep on and off though. I tried to do a crossword puzzle with mom and she listened but didn’t offer any answers at all. She seemed sort of dazed even though she was awake for an hour straight at that point. I wonder if a gluten free, casein free or high protein diet would help? I wish I knew the answer. I found out that we need to talk to the social worker about the hoyer pad for mom. I will do that tomorrow. I tried to get mom to color with crayons with me. She grabbed an orange crayon and made a few marks but then stopped and just stared. I tried the crossword again after mom was changed. Mostly, she was quiet but she did get the following clues:
“Not Spicy…spiceless” Mom mouthed, “BLAND” (it took a while for her to get this one)
“Scooby-____ (cartoon dog)” Mom mouthed, “Doo”
“Keep under surveillance” Mom mouthed, ‘Watch”
I left to go to the store with Lenny for a minute and Dad and mom sat and colored with the crayons. The CNAs came in shortly after that to put mom to bed. Mom, dad, Lenny, Terry and I sat and talked with mom and watched TV. Mom was awake but not interacting with any of us. Lenny and I took dad out to dinner and a movie (LIMITLESS). Terry stayed with mom.
The last time mom’s blood pressure was taken it was 110 over 80. Terry said mom ate her dinner of turkey salad, carrot salad, fruit, and milk. Terry said that mom was coughing a lot after dinner and needed to be suctioned a lot as well, but she fell asleep – out like a light by 7:05. Terry tucked her in for the night.
"Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you." Ecclesiastes 11:1
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