Mom’s update July 24, 2011
Claudia wrote: I started the day with mom. She was awake when I came in the room. She said good morning after I said it to her. I fixed her in the bed, put her hearing aids in and put her glasses on and raised the bed. I shut the TV and took out the ipad. I opened the program for counting. There are items on the screen and you touch each item and a number appears on the item. I gave her the stylus and told her to touch each item. She seemed to only touch the items on the right side of the screen. I folded a tissue into a small square and placed it under the right lens of her glasses and had her only use the left eye. She had a lot of difficulty seeing on the left side. I had to prompt her to turn her head and look for the items. She also had a hard time with the verbal direction of touch the items without a number. She didn’t understand the negative command of “without” a number. We did this for a while and then switched to another task. Mom said at one point that stopping would not help her because she can’t learn what to do if we switch games and activities so much. This was a program where there are scrambled letters and you need to take each letter tile and place them in a grid to form a word. She had a difficult time with dragging each letter where they needed to be. She was also distracted by the words on the top and bottom of the screen that labeled the name of the game and the level. I placed two pieces of colored paper on top and bottom so only the letter tiles and grid were present. She did better but was often confused as to where to place the letters. She was also stuck on a previous word and wasn’t aware that she did that word and a new word came up. The CNA came in and changed her and put her in the wheel chair for the day. Anthony, Con, Anthony Michael and Sam came to see mom. We were all talking and laughing. Anthony worked on her legs and mom was pushing with resistance. We then took out the pedals that Barry gave us and she was able to pedal with her arms and hands independently. She did this for a while. She also said she could feel it in her arms. Anthony then took out the ball and we had her try to walk the ball up and down her arm. She had trouble but tried and moved the ball slightly. Then Anthony threw the ball to her and modeled how to throw the ball back. Catching isn’t an issue, throwing is difficult. He demonstrated how to push out and open her hands and arms to throw the ball. She did better with each throw.
Dad came with a big bunch of gladiolas. He put them in a vase for her. We tried to have mom show dad how she pedaled with her hands but mom was confused. She didn’t know where to put her hands. She kept spinning the pedal. She knew she was confused so we stopped and went back to catching and throwing the ball.
Kathy wrote: Lenny, Terry and Kathy came to see mom next. Lenny tried to have mom do the Nintendo Wii games. First, they tried the “Cooking Mama” game. In this game, the person holds the controller and the controller has either a spatula, a spoon, a knife or a frying pan attached to it. Then, a little person comes on the screen of the TV and tells you what ingredient is being put into the recipe and what you need to do with it. For example, when you make an omelet, the person tells you to “cut the onion” and an onion comes on the screen. While you hold the knife that is attached to the controller, you make a cutting motion and the onion on the TV screen gets cut! They played Wii sports too. In this game, you move your arm to bowl or play tennis… Mom was uncertain of where to look at times…she couldn’t remember to look at the TV or where the TV was. Lenny patiently held the controller hand over hand with mom to get her to complete the tasks. Mom started to get frustrated on and off but then she would momentarily focus and enjoy the activity. She was definitely confused about where to look so Lenny stood behind mom and gently moved her head toward the TV, then he would gently let her tilt it to her right (which was her natural tendency—to look toward her right). As Lenny moved mom’s head left or right, he would say, “This is the bookcase”…then tilt her head in the opposite direction and say, “This is the TV” and repeat the process over and over. Lenny would then tilt mom’s head left and move her hand with the remote and say, “One, two, three—eyes on TV” in order to focus mom to look in the right direction. Terry came up with the idea to give mom only one word commands to play like, “Flick” (to move her wrist) or “swing” (to bowl)… this worked well. Most of the time, as the games progressed, mom had a difficult time concentrating on both the TV and her movements in conjunction.
Mom’s CNAs from downstairs came to visit her again this afternoon!! Mom was so thrilled to see them. She kissed them both and talked to them and even threw them kisses good-bye. Mom kept asking dad for something to eat. When dad said she still can’t eat yet, mom stuck out her tongue at dad! Mom called JoAnn and then Madeline (Jo’s mom) and talked on the phone with them both. She told Madeline, “I guess I will never see you again” but Madeline told mom they were coming to see her in a few weeks and mom got so happy and excited.
Mom’s new CNA came to put her to bed and change her. The CNA told us that mom said that she needed to use the “latrine!!!” Then mom asked the CNA to take off her mitts and asked how to get them off so she could “urinate.” Once mom got into bed, she became anxious and loopy again. She began to ask to go to the bathroom over and over and she also asked us to cut the blankets. Terry stayed to put mom to bed tonight. She said that mom was a little confused but mostly calm. Mom didn’t like having the mitts on and she still said and did things that don’t make sense (“I need to cut this…” “Find me a scissor…”). The confusion and “loopiness” starts around the time she is changed and put to bed as well as when her roommate enters the room for the night. This all started last week when the UTI began…so hopefully, we pray it will disappear as soon as the UTI does. Mom goes for pre-op testing tomorrow at the hospital where the shunt and coil were put in. On Friday, mom will get a cerebral angiogram to check on the status of the coil procedure that was done last year when mom had the aneurism and stroke. Pray all goes well and that she also is at peace at night and not agitated or fearful or loopy.
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
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