Mom’s update Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
John and I started the day with mom. She was sound asleep when we came in. We waited a little to let her rest and began to set up the room for the morning, opening shades, removing the mitts, and picking up the mats from the floor next to her bed. We then moved her up in the bed because she slouches down to the foot of the bed by morning. I put her hearing aids in and her glasses on and her breakfast came. John fed mom breakfast and Ava and I left to go to an appointment. When I came back mom had finished her breakfast and she and John were talking. John stayed a while and then left with Ava. I tried a new activity with mom this morning. It is a wooden base with three rods sticking out of it. There are three different shapes that are placed on each rod. One rod is threaded like a bolt and the circular shapes get screwed on to it. One rod has two bumps on it at the same height and then two more bumps further down. You need to find the shape with two indents and place it on top and turn. You then have to turn the shape again to get it over the next two bumps. The third rod has three bumps and you need to place the shape on the rod and then turn it over the first set of bumps and then turn it again over the next set of bumps. There is a lot of thought that goes it into completing the task. You first need to think about what shape goes on what rod purely by the bumps and indents. Next you need to motor plan to place the shape on the rod and then turn it past both sets of bumps. One of the things Kathy and I learned when we went to the OT workshop in June is that it is not just important to complete the task but to increase the time in which you complete the task. The fluid motion is very important. For mom, her attention span has been compromised due to the stroke and aneurysm. She will begin a task quickly and then pause for a long time. When I try to redirect her she has forgotten what she was supposed to do. We then tried to string beads but the task didn’t make sense to her. She kept trying to remove the bead that was tied onto the end of the string as a stopper. I then tried to just make a knot and have her use the string that way but it didn’t help.
The PT came in and showed the CNA how to transfer mom from the bed. First they remove the arm rest from the wheel chair. Her care plan has been changed and she is now a slide board transfer. They have mom turn on her side and hold the bed rails and then lift her left leg by lifting her left knee. She then lifts herself up to a sitting position while moving her legs off the bed. They then place a board as a bridge form under her bottom to the wheel chair. She slides across the board onto the wheel chair.
Her OT came to take her to OT. When she was wheeling her back I walked with her and asked how she is doing. The OT said she had a difficult time paying attention and remaining focused. That is the same thing I saw this morning with the shape and rod activity. She told me an activity to practice so once she was in the room (before lunch) I did the activity with her. I hold something up on her left side (affected side) and ask her to tell me what color it is (focus on object on affected side and answer a cognitive question related to attribute). Then I ask her to take the object with her left hand and put it in her right. She then has a chair placed on her right side but pushed back a little. She has to turn her trunk and place the object on the chair. We did this over and over until lunch came. She did pretty well with the task. I supported her left arm by placing my hand under her elbow. Lunch came and mom put the fork in her left hand and held the food steady while she cut with a knife in her right hand. I was impressed! Food has unfortunately always been a highly motivating thing for mom (and me!).
After lunch we tackled the shapes and rods again and I was trying to get her to keep working without stopping. She was a little annoyed at my insistence on staying on task, but when I explained why she was ok. I then gave her a choice of catalogs to ook at and she chose a cookware catalog. I put the cooking channel on. There is bowling today (Real bowling with a ramp) at 2:30 so I gave her some down time before bowling. We went to bowling but it wasn’t for mom. The group of people were not responsive and the game was being played on the table with a ball being pushed. I took her out and we went and sat outside for a little while.
When we came back in we did some math worksheets. She was able to count objects in a scene and then trace the number. We also did a worksheet where she had to draw the correct number of objects and she did well with that (drawing circles). We also did a worksheet with a missing number in a series. She did well with that too!
We then played memory with cards that have photos of everyday objects. Each time a card was turned over I would turn it face down and ask her what card it was and she started to be able to remember the cards. I kept chaining the cards before and she could remember three or four cards and where they were. We then took out the deck of playing cards and I tried the story about the queen of hearts and mom made the same jokes over and over and kept laughing hysterically. We had a good laugh together.
I then let her choose a DVD to watch on my computer. She chose MASH. We watched MASH until dinner. It is one of her favorite shows. Dinner came and she ate all of it. We did a jigsaw puzzle for awhile, but she had a lot of difficulty. She wanted to talk to dad so we called him and she also spoke to Kathy. Con called and explained that she hurt her neck and was not feeling well. Mom heard some of the conversation and was concerned about Con. Later in the evening she said, “How’s Con, can I call her?” so we called Con and mom asked her how she was and how her neck was. Anthony called and spoke to mom and mom talked back. She asked about something and said she would say a prayer for the person. We then put on Storage Wars on
A & E and mom was so into it. When I left for the night she said to leave it on because she was enjoying it. Mom was put in bed very late tonight. Long story. I said a prayer and gave her a kiss goodnight.
Peace, Love and Sweet Dreams to All!
~Claud
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