I decided not to rush to get to mom this morning since she has been so sleepy throughout the day over the last few days. So, I arrived there at 9:15 a.m. Her nurse saw me in the hallway and said, “Guess who’s awake today??!! Totally opposite from the last few days!” The nurse told me that mom was very agitated this morning and trying to rip her mitts off her hands. The nurse said she would remove them for mom during breakfast and washing her up while the CNAs were there, but then the nurse did something else. When the nurse returned to mom, mom mouthed, “I thought you were taking these off?” and thrust her mitted hands toward the nurse impatiently!! Mom was annoyed at me too. She pulled her ears over and over in an impatient way---she wanted her hearing aids in. Then she pulled at her mitts and tangled her hands in the process---she wanted them off. Then mom pointed to her eyes and made a face at me—she wanted her glasses!! Wow!! What a good night, day, night…of sleep can do!! I gave mom some juice and she drank the whole container. I asked her if she wanted to do a crossword puzzle and she said yes so I handed her the book. She quickly began to thumb through it and mouthed, “There’s none in here”---I told her to look again and she did. She told me over and over, “I keep looking and I can’t find one.” We found one and began.
The respiratory person said that mom was put on the vent mode SMIV last night again. The respiratory person tried to put mom on CPAP this morning early but mom’s total rate went into the high 40s (not awful but the respiratory person thought so) so mom was put back on SMIV until I came. She is on CPAP now.
Back to the crossword puzzle:
Clue: “An opera solo” Mom: “I don’t remember the name of it”
Kathy: “It starts with an A…” Mom: “Oh! Aria!!!” Then she spelled it for me!!
Clue: “___ Baba” Mom: “Ali”
Clue: “Ex Supreme Court Justice ___ Day O’Connor” Mom: “Sandra”
Clue: “Take an apartment” Mom: “I don’t know”
Kathy: “Starts with an R…” Mom: “An R?!!!!!” with an annoyed look.
Kathy: “If you don’t buy a house, you….” Mom: “Sublet” !!!!!!
Clue: “Sidewalk border. Starts with a C” Mom: “Curb?”
After mom was dressed and washed and put in the wheelchair, she was tired. She kept falling asleep on and off. In between, we continued with the crossword puzzle.
Clue: “flower stalk. Starts with an S” Mom: “Stem?”
Lunch came and mom fed herself!!! I used minimal hand over hand prompting and I started her out with the first 3 spoonfuls of food, but she fed herself about 2/3 of the meal independently. Mom had chicken chunks, rice, gravy, carrots and broccoli, and pears. She drank 2 containers of water and 1 of juice. We have been trying to hydrate her well to promote alertness and healing. Mom followed the nurse’s directions while her trach care was done. After that, mom fell asleep for about 45 minutes. I cleaned her closet while she slept.
Dad came and woke mom but she was sleepy and not very alert even though her eyes were open. I tried to do some writing with the markers on the white board, mom wasn’t interested. I gave her the sewing card and lace and, while she didn’t lace anything, she enjoyed holding it and exploring it. Dad brought her a Mother’s Day card from Laura, Barry, Mikayla, Kevin and Joshua. Mom held the card and read parts of it, but she thought that the card was from JoAnn. I read it with her afterward. I left mom with dad and they were looking at the baseball cards from Anthony.
Mom’s CNA got mom new, clean mitts, clean posies (the small pillows she holds in the mitts so her hands don’t get stiff and curled), and also asked for a larger wheelchair for mom. The one mom has is tight and small.
Dad said mom was awake all afternoon. Dad said that mom was very talkative this afternoon with him. She was quieter with John came to be with mom tonight. When he arrived, dad was in the middle of doing full physical therapy/range of motion with mom. Mom turned her head to John as though to greet him and was very alert and aware of his presence when he arrived. She acknowledged John. She was very attentive to John the whole night. They watched TV and then mom ate dinner. The CNA fed mom dinner. Mom ate her whole meal. She was put into bed after dinner. Mom was listening to all the conversations around her very attentively. Dad left and kissed mom and mom kissed him back. John took all the METS cards out and slowly read the information on each one and joked with mom saying, “You know I love you a lot because I am doing the METS cards with you.” She didn’t laugh but she got the joke. She was then grabbing the trach line a lot tonight!!! John had to take her hands off it a lot. John figured he would occupy her hands so he gave her the ball of string and he tangled it on the fingers of one of her hands and she became intensely occupied with removing the string from her fingers. Then he gave her commands to follow---“give me the ball of string”… then John did the Magna Doodle with mom. He asked her to draw pictures and he drew them for her. He made her laugh. John put the Magna Doodle in mom’s left hand and the pencil for it in her right hand and he began a picture of a face and mom made a mark, he doesn’t think on purpose, but he made a big deal about it saying, “Oh, you gave me hair!!” John made mom drink juice and mom reached for it a few times too. She grabbed it and put it to her mouth and he helped her tip it to get liquid in her mouth. Then John did the sewing card with mom. He put the lace in the hole and then mom pulled it through when John did it hand over hand. Mom got tired and fell asleep so John tucked her in and prayed and then shut the lights.
"Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the LORD your God has come true." Joshua 23:14
No comments:
Post a Comment