Over the past 2 1/2 weeks, mom has been a busy lady! Dad and I (and sometimes Claudia meets us) have been bringing mom to many doctor/test appointments. Dad and I also spent the day 2 weeks ago at a Medicaid hearing...we are still fighting this issue...it was quite the experience. People watching there was so intriguing, I kept thinking about what I learned about ethnographic note taking and observation and was tempted to do some there! People of every walk of life were there...young, old....every culture....it was sad to see and sadder still to observe how people are treated here...largely with no dignity or respect ("Mary Smith report to counter 10!!!" is just one example of the announcements over the PA system...what if Mary wanted to remain anonymous??? I guess she doesn't get that option...). There were older people like my dad there, spouses together or one spouse who represents a spouse who is ill, or young men fresh out of prison (those conversations were so sad to overhear....), or young mothers with children and babies (I wondered about how many children are admonished for an absence from school who have teachers who are totally unaware of where and how their students spent their day out of school?). Our issue involves the fact that the paperwork for the Medicaid was filed 1 month too late (dad hired someone to do this for him) and now it appears that dad owes $21,000 to the nursing/rehab facility for that ONE MONTH...yes one month costs $21,000!!! We should be able to win the case though...hopefully...please add that to your prayer list...thanks.
Dad and I (and sometimes Claudia met us there) brought mom for a visit to her general practitioner, pre-op testing, the ENT, a throat cat scan, a chest x-ray, a visit to the neurologist, the pulmunologist, a Cat scan of her head, and a botox appointment for her left hand (that was interesting....it was a combination of acupuncture and botox--the needle for the botox gets strategically placed in mom's lower arm muscle and depending where it hit in the muscle, mom was able to freely move her left hand and uncurl her fingers....so can one conclude that the damage after the stroke was less about the message from the brain to the hand and more about muscle damage???? Interesting). I think that was every appointment....but I could be missing some!! Oh...there was also a "urine sample run" to the hospital pre-op unit since mom couldn't fit in the miniscule "handicapped accessible" bathroom at the unit the day of the pre-op testing!!! Their bathroom was sooooo small that, if the wheelchair fit in, the door couldn't close!!! Dad and I had to put the garbage can in the hallway and squeeze ever so tightly into the room with mom in order to help her!!! The toilet was also almost on the floor!!! It was soooo low!!! Who planned this room and WHO passed it for inspection??? Not someone in a wheelchair who needs support from others! Mom has had a busy 2 weeks...
The pulmunologist is the one from the rehab/nursing facility. At seeing mom, the pulmunologist said, "Oh Dotty, it is soo good to see you. Do you remember me? That's OK if you don't? I remember you and the wonderful family you have. You and your husband must have done something right to have such a family support" (this made mom and dad beam...literally beam...like their lives meant something special and were for good because of how we, their children, act. It brought tears to my eyes to see the proud look on their faces....l can't explain it...I don't write this as an exhortation about us or me but about them. Kids don't think much about the dramatic role we play in our parents' lives....or the difference we make in their lives or the meaning our actions bring to their lives.... I know I am guilty of not recognizing that). The pulmunologist reconfirmed that "there must be a God out there in order to witness this kind of love." What a blessing. How many times do I look at the literal situation before me which isn't always a good one and don't recognize the blessings surrounding it???
Good news!! Mom turned a corner last week and has been more motivated to walk and stand. She seems more alert too...not as loopy. Anthony has been working with mom doing physical therapy and he got her to walk with the walker about 10 feet (according to dad's reports). Dad also works with mom too and he got her to use her legs while in the wheelchair to ambulate about 20 feet in the house!! She stands better with the walker and the bars on the walls too. She is getting there!!! I was getting worried about her state of mind----which by the way, was likely influenced by yet ANOTHER urinary tract infection!!! Jo Ann told us about drinking peppermint tea as a preventative (as per Dr. Oz) so we will try this with mom. Mom is now on an antibiotic for the next 7 days. Mom seems to have had an awakening though overall which is making her more alert, aware, and able to try to do things...visual supports help greatly. Claudia and I made charts and lists and schematics on how to do things like get from a sitting position to a standing position. We plan to make daily activity books for mom as well that describe how to complete activities as well. Without the visuals, mom does not do as well.
Ava did speech with mom and Jean has visited and stayed with mom a lot over the last 2 weeks. Anthony Michael, Sammy, Con and Anthony all see mom regularly too, as do John, Claudia and Terry. Claudia does cognitive work with mom using the Life Skills sheets. I had some time last week, in between all mom's appointments, to work on her cognitive skills and physical therapy too. Mom did great on things like explaining figures of speech (ex: "It really burns me up" Mom: "Gets you very angry" or "She eats like a bird" Mom: "She doesn't really eat a lot" or here's a good one: "People don't trust a person who breaks his word" Mom: "To NEGATE what you said" --- no problems there!!).Some of the work sheets cover things like, reading a sentence or two and selecting the best ending to the sentence from a choice of 3; or finding a better word for an underlined word in a sentence (ex. "The leaves blew around the park" Mom: "Twirled"...). Mom does famously with these word related activities...mom was always into words!! However, I notice a decline in her ability to spell words when she writes and also in her writing ability.Her script is hard to read now...it wasn't when it first came back, and she frequently shifts from writing upper case to lower case to script... in the same sentence and sometimes in the same word! This could be due to the fact that she is still integrating information in a logical, functional fashion---and until all the input is arranged properly in her brain...the input will come out in unrefined pieces. That seems to make sense to me. Mom and I also do motor skill practice as well as cognitive skill practice in the form of games in the various waiting rooms of doctors and tests....
Claudia wrote: January 17, 2012I started the day bright and EARLY (4:30am) to get her ready for her hospital procedure. Mom had her kidney stone blasted. She was in a great mood, although she was nervous. I don’t know how to describe her nervousness other than a normal amount of nerves. Over the past few weeks she has been crying a lot, but today she did great. We (Dad, Terry and I) had her in the car by 5:30 and arrived at the hospital early, where we met Kathy. They took her right in and dad and I stayed with her. She did great transferring from her wheelchair to the hospital “chair” (no stretchers anymore unless you need it). The only
thing she had a great deal of difficulty with was the IV. Her sense of touch is very sensitive. It also took a long time for the nurses to find a vein.
I distracted her with the XM radio on my phone. I played spa music and mom was just getting annoyed telling me “There are no words! What kind of music is this?” I then put on 40’s music and she started to
sing along! The nurses got a kick out of it and kept telling her to sing while they tried to get the IV going.
They took mom for an x-ray and I explained to the technician that she is not mobile and can’t walk but He
didn’t understand to what capacity (Or wasn’t listening). I asked if I could go with her and he was annoyed but let me go. I kept asking if he was going to be able to x-ray her in the chair and he didn’t answer me.
He wheeled her in and said, “OK get up on the table (4’ high table)!!! I asked if it could be lowered and he said, “No, why?” I repeated that she can’t walk or use her legs to ambulate and he said, “Oh, no problem I
have steps she can use!!! (OK, What part of she can’t walk, climb steps or ambulate is he not getting!) All of a sudden he said, “Oh, we have a problem.” He stood for a long time thinking and I suggested we get a
stretcher and lower it all the way down and I could transfer her to the stretcher and we can transfer to the x-ray table. He agreed and back we went into the other room. I transferred her to a stretcher and the
nurses escorted her to the x-ray room.
They kept her on the stretcher and at one point I asked the nurses about a bed sore that I noticed this
morning. They propped her up to alleviate the pressure and told me to call her nursing service when we get home to get it looked at. It was a long wait for them to take her to surgery because it was the first day
with paperless charts in the ambulatory surgery unit. They took her and a little over an hour later we received a call that she was OK.Dad was called in to see her a little while later and she was crying and weepy.
Overall she did great with the anesthesia. She wasn’t loopy at all. Kathy and I went in next to stay with mom and she and I and a nurse changed her. She ate two graham crackers and drank Ginger-Ale and two
glasses of water and before you no it she was being sent home. Dad, Terry, mom and I drove home and Terry and I settled her in on the recliner and had her drink some more (as per the doctor). She was very
alert and just little tired. I couldn’t believe how great she did! I stayed for a while and then left. I returned in the evening to put her to bed. She has a different aide on the weekends because her aide is out
of work helping her daughter recover form surgery. This new aide is worth her weight in gold! She is so pleasant and nice. She is great with mom and works so hard to make her clean and comfortable. I left mom all tucked in for the night and thanked God for a smooth surgery with no
major issues.
Please pray for mom’s bed sore, that it doesn’t get worse.Peace and love,~Claud
Mom sees the urologist in 3 weeks following a cat scan of her kidneys in 2 1/2 weeks to see how the stone blasting went. Dad is supposed to strain her urine---not easy at all on a modified toilet seat (may even be impossible to do) so that the urologist can study the stone fragments (now there's an interesting line of work, huh??? NOT.). Mom goes to get the stoma (hole in her throat closed) on March 6....and the mad pre-op testing dash will begin again in late February....
BUT..........MOM IS HOME.....with us.....among us....and for this, hard as it is at times.......IS THE GREATEST THING!!!!
"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34
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