Claudia called late last night after she got home from being with mom. She said that mom tried to string some small beads on a lace but had difficulty with the motor planning of it. Mom also tried to do the large, oversized, plastic nuts and bolts but had the same problem. Claudia tried to verbally prompt mom but it didn’t help so Claudia finally sang the directions to mom (this seemed to help). Singing is on one side of the brain and verbal language is on the other side. It seems she does better earlier in the day. Mom also wanted to take her own make-up off last night, she asked Claudia why she (mom) couldn’t do it. So Claudia let her do it. Mom asks a lot more to take care of herself lately. Claudia also said that mom’s roommate was out of control last night---screaming, yelling, trying to get out of bed at one point (she is a small fragile lady and who can’t move at all during the day and screeching in pain then too--Claudia had to yell for the nurses so the woman wouldn’t get hurt). I plan to follow up on why this person isn’t moved to a new room yet since her family agreed to move her. The one good thing about last night was that mom wasn’t agitated by the yelling—mom just felt bad for the person. Claudia told the nurses about the noise and the nurses said they might move the woman down to the nurse’s station in a wheelchair for monitoring. Mom was peaceful and calm with Claudia and prayed with her before Claudia left. Mom watched Claudia go to the door and waved good-bye. For the most part, mom was lucid while Claudia visited with mom.
I began the day with mom this morning. She was hard to wake up. I don’t know how much of this was typical exhaustion and how much was due to mom’s noisy roommate. I plan to find out though. There is an empty room across the hall (made for 2 roommates) so why not move the roommate there? The last roommate had those awful TV shows blasting all day…mom has been here for 13 months now---I would think she would have some type of priority over newcomers. Once I woke mom, she was awake and alert. They brought the wrong breakfast—waffles---no good!! I sent it back (we ordered healthier choices earlier in the week). Mom had cottage cheese, peaches (which she took and added to the cottage cheese), coffee, orange juice, and farina and vanilla milk. She fed herself and ate it all.
Another note I forgot from yesterday---mom is no longer on any type of liquid food!! Nor is she on any type of tube meds (like the Robinol). Everything is by mouth now!! Yipppeee!! She still has the G-tube for now for the next 3 weeks just as a precaution. Anthony asked the nurse yesterday if the tube could be taped to mom’s abs so it isn’t flailing around and free to grab and yank out—the nurse said no but if the tube comes out at this point---it stays out!!
After breakfast, mom and I set about writing thank you notes to cousins, Joan, and Lori. I told mom she could tell me what she wanted to say and I would type it on my laptop. At the same time though, I had already given mom the white board and the markers. She selected a blue marker and began to write her own thank you note. She began to mouth what she wanted to write and tried to write what she was saying, “Dear Lori, Ralph and Kids, thank you for the presents.” But then she looked at what she wrote and said, “Oh…I can’t read what I wrote.” It’s a strange phenomenon…mom can still spell any word you ask her to spell. She can also speak very well AND read really well…but writing what she wants to say is jumbled. This is what she wrote: “THEDA 7HNG YOU for 117 potont EOR THUOMFUPM THU” When I ask mom to write her own name, she can write “DOTTY” without any prompts or models. Today, she wrote her name in the following order: “T T Y” then she went back before the Ts and wrote “D O”… interesting process.
Mom was just taken to the shower. There is a substitute CNA today. On the way out the door, the aide jerked the chair mom was in out of the doorway and slammed mom’s hand into the door frame. I happened to be in the lounge and saw what happened. I slammed mom’s ankle into the door frame last week when she was in the wheelchair too. It happens I guess.
Mom slept for about an hour after her shower. The OT came to get her but decided to come back because, if mom went when she was tired, she may not perform well during therapy. The OT would have to document mom’s lack of skills which would work against her in the long run because, if mom doesn’t perform, she doesn’t get OT any more.
I woke mom finally and we practiced writing some more. Mom is not sure about how to begin a task or what is required to execute a task when she is tired. We used a writing practice book. The book has patterns for line writing from left to right and/or from top to bottom.
The speech therapist came in next and had mom chew and swallow 10 ice chips. Mom did great. Chewing and swallowing ice chips is a difficult task to do—it takes more motor control both orally (in the mouth) and pharyngally in the throat. Mom then had to repeat sounds 10 times--- Hawk (with a hard K), LaKa (with a hard K), AHA, AGA. Mom did fine but is not loud enough at times. The therapist asked mom what day it was and mom said, “Oh boy. I knew it. But I forgot!” She knew the month was August. The therapist said, “Here’s a clue. TGIF” and mom said, “Friday?” Then mom had to repeat words after the therapist said them—they all ended with a hard K sound. The therapist gave mom the word ‘egg’ and had mom think of rhyming words: mom said: Meg, leg… The next word was LUG..mom said, “Mug, bug, tug, dug.” Then mom had to make an eeeeeeeee sound (she did it and it was LOUD)…then oooooo sound (mom did it loudly). Then mom combined them together eeeeeooooooo. Mom sort of sang it. When she did this, sing, she was loud. The therapist asked mom about the shows mom performed in and mom said there were many and laughed because she couldn’t think of any. I gave mom some first word or sound clues and mom knew them all. She knew the characters she played in each show without a prompt.
We went back to the line tracing and writing activity book next. Either mom has poor or no peripheral vision or poor motor planning or both because she couldn’t place the pencil where my finger was at all. On one page, there were a series of 3 cans of paint and then 3 paintbrushes (pictures) and you had to draw a line from one paintbrush to the next then from one can of paint to the next. The line was crooked though….almost like the small lines in a lower case k. Mom connected one paintbrush to another and one can to another, but she was all over the page. She couldn’t draw lines to connect the items sequentially. Mom was able to match pictures by drawing a line from one picture to another matching picture but not in sequence. Mom was also tired again. She fell asleep while writing so who knows how much of her performance was based on being tired?
Mom catnapped for about 20 minutes and then lunch came. She had grilled cheese sandwich (she said it was “delicious!!!”) and peas and carrots, coffee, apple juice, apple crisp and a corn muffin (but it was petrified from the microwave!!). We argue at every meal, mom and I, because I tell her to drink all her liquids and she says she doesn’t want to and asks why she has to!! The tables are turned!!! Once upon a time, she would tell me to do drink…now I tell her! Hahahaha! I sang to mom to get her to drink her juice!! She laughed. I made up a ‘juice song’ just like I used to do when I was a teacher of young children. We had fun. We looked out the window at one point and I sang, “The Rain in Spain” and mom said the song was from “My Fair Lady.”
Mom went to PT and OT after lunch. In PT, mom did the bridges really well (feet on floor, knees bent, lift butt upward). She also practiced laying sideways on a bed and pushing upward into a sitting position (she assisted), and she stood at the walker but said she was nervous. The PT said she did really well today though. In OT, mom practiced wiping a table and reaching to do it. Mom also named the color of a beanbag and then picked it up in the left hand and transferred it to her right hand and place it in a container. Mom also practiced putting on and taking off her shirt. The OT said mom did well with reaching and extending her left arm more.
Mom’s girlfriends, Maureen, Flo, and Florence, came to see her this afternoon. We all sat in the computer lounge and then outside and talked and laughed. It was a nice visit but mom was unusually tired from not sleeping last night so she napped a few times.
Lenny came to see mom next and we visited with her until dad came. Once mom and I got back into her room, she worked on the sewing card and laced it very well. Dinner came and mom had chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, yellow beans. I left at 7:00 when mom finished dinner. Dad stayed with mom. He said she was agitated because the aides didn’t put the bed pan under her correctly again and it hurt her. They also left her on it for a long time alone. Dad calmed her down and they watched TV and he talked to her. He said what really put her at ease was that they held hands and prayed together. He prayed with her on 3 different occasions tonight. She calmed right down, relaxed and fell into a deep sleep by 9:15. Pray that her roommate relaxes and sleeps through the night too.
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
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