Claudia began the day with mom. When Claudia arrived, mom was practically vertical in the bed, squished lopsided to one side and there were 2 aides feeding her breakfast. Claudia gently but assertively redirectioned the situation so that mom was lifted up high in the bed (so that she could sit straighter) and moved mom so she was aligned straighter in the bed and then moved the table to the right side of the bed and had mom feed herself. During this time, the TV was on and mom asked, "what's on TV?" Mom ate eggs with the fork and alternated between fork and spoon dependent upon what she ate (eggs or oatmeal). She scooped with the spoon with her right hand and held a doubled, plastic cup filled with oatmeal with her left hand. At one point, mom tried to put the butter knife in her mouth (it appears that she gets confused at times) and when Claudia told her not to do that because she could get hurt, mom "tsked" Claudia as if to say, "stop babying me." When breakfast was over, she asked, "Is breakfast done? What did I eat?" and Claudia told her all she ate. Claudia put various toys on mom's lap for mom to explore and use to exercise as she did her physical therapy and there was a ball on mom's leg that began to roll off; mom told the ball to, "Stay" Claudia said, "Yeah like the ball can hear you? " Mom said, "No it doesn't" in an annoyed way. Claudia said mom's attention to things today was like it was the first time she saw them. New. Curious. Alert. Attentive. Mom was holding things in right hand and picking at or exploring them with her left. Her left hand is moving and doing things like crazy today. She was also very talkative.
Con, Anthony, and Samantha came to see mom next. Mom was talking out loud—she said, “What?” and “I want juice” and she said, “Hi” to the respiratory therapist. Con did a crossword with mom and mom answered these clues:
“a wrestler: Muhammad____” Mom said, “Ali”
“a musician, ____Guthrie” Mom said, “Arlo”
We went over the menu with mom. Sammy read it to mom and Anthony had her laughing with his side comments. The CNA helping mom’s roommate said she never laughed so much listening to someone read a menu. Anthony kept telling mom to pick the pasta dishes and then he told mom to remember that whatever she doesn’t eat to save under her blankets for him to eat --- as the CNA left the room, she warned that she was going to start to check the blankets from now on! Hahaa! We all laughed and joked and mom talked and laughed with us. Mom was trying to put everything in her cup of juice so we tried to have mom do the buttons in the container but she wasn’t interested. Anthony worked on mom’s feet and legs next. He tried to have her lift her legs but all she did was move her toes. Mom coughed a lot today. She took a quick cat nap while we were there. Dad came next and mom woke up. She was very sleepy then…awake but then would fall asleep again on and off. When she seemed to wake up finally, dad talked to her and she was staring at him and trying to comment on what he was saying. They watched TV and held hands for a while. The CNA who was with mom for lunch said that she did really well today and that he didn’t have to feed her much because she did a lot on her own! Dad said he and mom watched TV then mom was moved to bed and ate all of her chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and custard for dinner then fell asleep. He tucked her in and went home. I went to a show, “HONK” a rendition of THE UGLY DUCKLING that Ava directed for St. Cyril’s School in Deer Park…it is playing again Sunday at 2:00. It was amazing!!! Guess what else? Standing behind me on the food line was mom's physical therapist from the facility!!! The therapist's 2 daughters were in Ava's play!!! Small world! Ava is amazing---there must have been 50 4-8th graders in the show. She did it all.
Mom would have been so proud of her. I taped it so mom can watch tomorrow.
"They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights." Psalm 36:8
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