Mom’s Status: 2010-10-29
Summary
Mom came home today for an in-home evaluation of her capabilities. Essentially she’ll now have to live as a paraplegic, as her legs are virtually useless to her in order to get around the house. So, the therapists have been focusing on preserving and utilizing her upper body strength for transferring from bed to wheelchair, from wheelchair to easy-chair, and wheelchair to bath facilities. She did pretty well with all the transfers although she was very tired for much of the visit. She was unable to transfer to the toilet, because the one we have is too low. We need to either raise this one five inches or purchase a new one, whose seat is five inches higher off of the floor. We’ll probably just go with a new commode as the one we have now is nearly forty years old, and so, probably uses more water than necessary by today’s environmental standards. However, the rest of the transfers were very easy, and the therapists showed my two youngest sisters and myself how to best assist Mom in doing them. The bathroom is a little small. So she’ll have to sit with her back to the faucets in the tub. But that’s easily managed as well. We’re confident that she’ll be safe living here.
So far, no signs of MRSA return, but she has been quite sleepy the past couple weeks. I left a message with her PCP, requesting the results of her last echo and whether he thought that the endocarditis has been cured. We also would like to have the correct echo done before she comes home. Skin color: notably pale this afternoon. Fever: none. Mouth: very dry. She did not complain of being cold at all today. She continues in her occupational therapy sessions, to build her upper body strength to compensate for her weakened legs. But after seeing her perform here yesterday, I’m very optimistic about her returning home.
Ongoing Objectives
These objectives are on hold.
- Call Mom’s insurance company and find out what sorts of in-home rehab visits they cover — how many of them over how long of a period. Sister Mary Ann recommends that we spread these out over the entire coverage period, and not use them all immediately.
- Monitor Mom’s overall pain status. IN PROGRESS. Her pain is all but gone, and she no longer takes any pain meds regularly.
- Track the dissipation of Mom’s pelvic hematoma. IN PROGRESS. We have to follow up on this one.
- Locate Mom’s living will. IN PROGRESS. Given that Mom has expressed her wishes to both us and the nursing staff and doctors, I’ve deferred this item. With us nearby to instruct them should a crisis arise, there’s less need for a hard copy of the living will.
Completed Objectives
Log
01:00 PM: Sisters Jojo and Mary Ann, and myself greeted Mom as she arrived in the Med Van.
- The wasted no time getting to work. First, she went into the bathroom and tried transferring from the wheelchair to toilet and from wheelchair to bathtub. No major problems discovered. But we’ll need to raise the commode so that the seat is an addition five inches above the floor. It must be as close as possible to the same height as the seat of her wheelchair to make the transfers as easy as possible.
- Two therapists accompanied Mom, and they first practiced various transfer techniques. Then, once they determined the best ways to move from surface to surface here in our particular environment, we kids got to try helping Mom through some of them. Not difficult at all, and being that she does not need to stand during any of these movements, coupled with the fact that she’s sitting less than three feet from the floor, we feel that the risk of her falling is acceptably low.
- She still can neither kick nor squeeze her knees together very strongly, nor can she lift herself up with her legs without extensive assistance. Yet in light of today’s home evaluation, these weaknesses seem like they will not be a major barrier to her returning home.
- She will require a hospital bed if she returns home. Her regular bed, while certainly big enough, is too low to the ground, and cannot be adjusted for TV viewing or comfortable resting.
- She was able to transfer to her Lay-Z-Boy recliner, and once there, she waved good-bye to the nurses and playfully suggested that she’d not be returning to the nursing care facility with them.
- She got to hold her cats, and they still recognized her, though it’s been three months since they last saw her.
- 02:45 PM: The Med Van then returned and we helped get her all loaded back up in it. Overall, she passed the in-home evaluation. That is, she will be able to return home. But we won’t know exactly when, until we work out some logistical issues. Wonderful!