Saturday, September 3, 2011
Mom’s Update
I started the day with mom. I made her a wheat germ omelet. (Trust me, I know it sounds gross but she loves it) She also had some turkey slices. She ate all of her breakfast. She said to me during breakfast, “I’m never getting out of here am I?” I told her that wasn’t true and she just has to work hard. I then did some physical exercises with her. I gave her the 2lbs. weights in her hand and had her lift her arms bending at the elbow. Her palms were up and occasionally I had to support her arm under the elbow. (25x each arm) I also braced her arm and helped her lift her arm all the way up with the weight. We couldn’t do too many of these because her elbow kept “cracking”. I will have to tell the PT about that. I put the medium size blue ball under her left knee and had her lift her leg. She lifted her leg 20x!!! I did the same for the right leg. I then had her lift her legs bending at the knees (puling her knees to her chest). This wasn’t easy. She kept saying, “I can’t.” I told her not to say I can’t. I reminded her of what she said this morning when she said she was never getting out of here and if she keeps saying “I can’t” it will be harder to get out of here. I told her to say, “It’s hard, but I’m trying.” She kept saying I can’t so I told her every time she says I can’t I will tickle her feet! She laughed. I tickled them the next time she said it and she said stop so I said don’t say “I can’t” and she made a face mocking me! (She is a character) Next we threw the medium size blue ball. I wanted her to use both hands. Then we threw a smaller ball and I made her use her left hand. She started to say I can’t and then changed to I’m trying but said it with a face! It was hard for her to release the ball with her left hand. We also walked the ball up and down her arm using her opposite hand and fingers. Her right hand is on the ball and the ball is on her left shoulder. She uses her fingers to walk the ball down and then up her arm. She was getting tired so I told her she could have a break. I gave her a magazine and I turned to get my computer and she said, “Let’s do some more stuff.” I couldn’t believe she wanted to do more work!!! How great is that? I then gave her the pom poms and the container with the holes on top. She has to take a large plastic tweezer and grab each pom pom and put them in the holes.
The CNA’s came to get her dressed and ready for her day. I ran to Target to get her a shoe horn and when I got back they already had her in the dining room area to sit with other residents. Mom does NOT like that. Many of the people are very old
(90’s +) and have more issues than mom. When I walked in she said, “Get me out of here.” I took her back to the room and she told me that she did better with the lift. She said that the CNA (her usual one) is good at telling her what to do and how to hold on. She was happy with her progress.
I was given a book of language tasks by John’s cousin. John made a few copies. I punched holes in one copy and placed it in a binder and brought it today to work with mom. Some of the tasks include regular and irregular noun phrases (This is a girl – these are girls) , regular and irregular noun phrases with descriptors (This boy is tall – the boys are tall), Cloze figures – this consists of dotted figures and you need to look at the dots and see what the figure is. When I did this section I asked mom what the figure was and she said, “A bunch of dots on a newspaper” and laughed. I told her they make a picture of something and I said the picture was something red… and mom said, “I see the apple!” as if it were too easy. She was able to label three of the four figures! I didn’t make a big deal after one of the figures and she said, “Well, did I get it right?” Dad was there and he was impressed with her ability to answer the questions. There were also pictures with missing pieces and mom was able to do three out of the four pictures. One picture and a girl with the inner part of her eye missing (very subtle) and mom said “pupil.” She always had a great vocabulary. I left and dad stayed with her. Mom kissed me goodbye and stayed with dad.
Terry went to mom and Dad was there. They were watching Lonesome Dove. She had a difficult time understanding the movie because the actors spoke in a western accent. She asked to do things like look at the paper and write things down on paper. She was trying to do the crossword puzzle. She didn’t want their help, although she couldn’t write in the boxes. She had the pen and tried to write. Mom ate dinner and she had sweet potatoes, ham and pineapple. She also had Cauliflower. She liked it. She always reads the menu that is on the tray that tells you what food you are eating. Dad stayed with her to put her to bed. Mom has been telling me that she is sleeping well at night…thank God.
Peace and be well,
~Claud
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