Tom's Diary

Summary

Now that Mom’s been home now for nearly five days, and we’re getting comfortable with her new assistive equipment and settling in with her care routines, I can take a few minutes to write out her status.  She’s experienced low blood sugar episodes for three of the past four nights she’s been here.  I believe her dose of long-acting insulin started off too high (32 units).  We backed it down to 20 units after the first couple days.  However, she still developed the sweats and shakes at 3:30 this morning and her blood sugar value was 43.  So tonight, we’ll try 15 units.

She’s getting very good at transferring herself from bed to wheelchair to toilet to easy chair.  We must be careful not to pinch her legs between the board and source surface when sliding the transfer board underneath her.  She already got one cut on the back of her thigh from this. 

She wants to become more active in her life. Last night, she cooked some poached eggs and accomplished most of the cleanup on her own.  Her upper body strength continues to improve and the time it takes for her to transfer herself from one surface to another has dropped to half of what it was when she came here for the in-home evaluation a couple weeks ago. 

She has no fever,   She’s still not very strong, but is getting stronger.  She’s not quite so sleepy these days, as she’s required no pain meds since she’s been home.  Her color is good and alertness and comprehension seems normal. 

Ongoing Objectives

These objectives are on hold. 

• 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

• 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.  The nursing facility is handling all this for us.
• Track the dissipation of Mom’s pelvic hematoma.  IN PROGRESS.   We have to follow up on this one. 

Log

03:30 AM: Low blood sugar; a reading of 43.  Gave her two cups of orange juice and a small bowl of peanut butter pretzel nuggets to counter.  She felt better pretty much immediately. 

08:55 AM: The home nurse arrived.  He interviewed Mom and asked us to demonstrate her transfers.  He also provided tips to help lower the effort level of these transfers for both Mom and myself.  His outfit will provide some physical as well as occupational therapy for the next few weeks, he said that a physical therapist will come by sometime during the next couple days, to get Mom started on upper body strength workouts here in her home. 

09:45 AM: The nurse departed and I gave Mom her morning meds. Today, I must call her doctor and request that several prescriptions be called into Mom’s pharmacy; we’re running out of the ones they gave her at discharge from the nursing facility. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-11-16

Summary

The bacteria that reappeared in Mom’s blood late last week have disappeared again. Nurses have drawn subsequent samples, and verified that they’ve all come back with consistently negative readings.  We still do not know what germ infected her this time.  But she seems none the worse for the wear; she’s just very tired.  She still has no fever, and plans are now underway to bring Mom home this Thursday.   She’s not very strong and is, most of the time, very sleepy.  But her medical insurance will not cover extending her stay at the nursing facility beyond this Wednesday.  So we’re hoping that her weakness is just due to her blood being too thin; which they’re attempting to regulate with less blood-thinning medications. 

Ongoing Objectives

These objectives are on hold. 

• 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

• 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.  The nursing facility is handling all this for us.

Log

10:10 AM: I arrived at the nursing facility and waited while nurse’s aids helped Mom dress.

10:30 AM: We then strolled down to the lounge on the first floor and took in some television, chit-chatted about last week’s election and what it could mean for lasting health care reforms.

11:45 AM: I went up the street to a hot dog restaurant and brought back lunch for the two of us.  Mom sure loves those Texas hot dogs.  Good food always seems to spruce her up. 

01:30 PM: We watched   The Young and the Restless   live (no DVR today); although I probably will watch it again as I could not understand all the dialog with all the noise about. 

01:50 PM: Sister Jojo arrived to take me home.  Mom stayed in the lobby and watched us pull away. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-11-08
• Today’s Business: 2010-11-09

Summary

Unfortunately, we were told today that some bacteria have reappeared in Mom’s blood yesterday. They’re drawing new samples now to see if they all come back with consistently positive readings and to get more data about these germs.  The results of these subsequent tests will provide more certainty as to the type and extent of this new infection.  She has no fever at the moment, but this is typical of early-stage infections; they show up in the blood before any symptoms appear.  The tests will take 24 to 48 hours to germinate.  So it likely won’t be until at least Sunday that we know much more.  But at any rate, she probably will not be coming home this Monday.  I’ll supply more information as we learn it. 

Ongoing Objectives

These objectives are on hold. 

• 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

• 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.  The nursing facility is handling all this for us.

Log

09:00 AM: Sister Diane called to say that Mom told her that there’s something additionally wrong with her blood besides it being too thin.  However, Mom did not know what that might be.  So Diane asked me, as the lead familial contact, to call the nursing facility for more information.

09:15 AM: I called Mom to get her take on this.  She does not appear too anxious.  In fact, she said that when the nurse told her that she might be infected again, a strange wave of calmness passed over her, and she knew then that she does not want anymore surgeries to fix this.  If this is the same infection as before, Mom’s mental state and overall physical disposition could suddenly decline.  So we’re going to get up to see her as much as possible over the next day or two.   

09:30 AM: I talked with Mom’s day nurse at the nursing facility.  She said that they spotted new bacteria in Mom’s blood, and gave the the information which I’ve summarized above.

09:45 AM: I filled in sisters Mary Ann and Jojo.  I’ll add to this post if any other updates come in. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-11-05

Summary

They wanted to send Mom home today, as her medical insurance company will not continue paying for her to receive rehabilitation services at the nursing facility if she’s not showing appreciable signs of improvement.  She has not appeared to gain much strength in her legs in the past few weeks.  So, their coverage of her stay there ends today.  However, we do not yet have the house completely prepared for her return.  So, we looked into her staying at these hotel-like suites at the nursing facility, which offer reasonably affordable assisted living and around-the-clock care.  That was the plan until this morning anyway, when the nurses told us that a recent blood test showed her blood to be too thin.  We had taken her to her new digs and she was settling in when they told us this news.  They felt that she’d be better off to return to her second floor room which offers full care.  Since this problematic blood work represents a new medical issue for her, her insurance will now pay for her to stay there until they get it thickened up a little.  Now, we’re looking at her coming home this coming Monday.  She’ll not spend any time in the suites now; opting instead to just come straight home. 

So far, no signs of MRSA return, but she has been quite sleepy the past couple weeks.  No word yet from her PCP, from whom I requested the results of her last echo and whether he thought that the endocarditis has been cured.  We learned however from the head nurse this past Tuesday that they did not want to give her the more expensive transesophageal echo cardiogram until some weeks had passed since her last infusion of antibiotic.  This makes sense that they’d want to wait until all the anti-bacterial effects of the antibiotic disappeared because running this test while the medicine was still active would probably have shown no further growth of the vegetation on her heart valves.  

Skin color: more normal this morning.  Fever: none.  Mouth: not too dry.  Her occupational therapy will continue as long as she’s staying out there and even, once she comes home.     

Ongoing Objectives

These objectives are on hold. 

• 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

• 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.  The nursing facility is handling all this for us.

Log

08:05 AM: I’m leaving to visit Mom now.  Details follow.

• 08:30 AM: I arrived.  Mom was still in bed but fully awake.
• 09:00 AM: The woman in charge of discharging patients arrived to fill out applications for the assisted-living suite where Mom will reside throiugh the weekend (or so we thought).
• 09:40 AM: All applications, waivers, and other forms have been explained to us and we signed them. 
• 09:45 AM: Went to the business office to pay for Mom’s three-day stay in the suite.  $392. 
• 10:25 AM: While we waited for the guy who runs the suites to come and take us to Mom’s new room, we just watched CNN and talked a little. 
• 10:40 AM: This fellow arrived and we began moving Mom and her things upstairs.
• 11:00 AM: We spent about twenty minutes in the suite.  I think Mom liked it but thought it ridiculous that she had to change rooms for just three days. 
• 11:05 AM: A nurse informed us that Mom’s latest blood test should some abnormalities (namely, blood too thin), and that she recommended that Mom go back to the skilled care area where she’s been staying up until now, so they could keep a better eye on her.  She was happy about this I think. 
• 12:00 PM: Then, we went to the little alcove where several of the residents were milling about, watching   The Price is Right.  Mom wasn’t very talkative throughout all of this, and in this last hour, grew very sleepy, saying, “I’m gong right to bed after lunch!” 
• 12:00 PM So, I said good-bye and went down to await my ride. 
• 12:45 PM: My ride arrived, and so then, I left. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-11-04

I discovered that WordPress was again saving every revision of every post after I upgraded the   Tom’s Views   blog to WordPress 3.0.1, though I had disabled this feature during the last WordPress upgrade.  Click   here   for more details.  But apparently, in this latest version, the automatic retention of these revisions became enabled once more. So I turned off this feature by commenting out line 4404 in the wp-includes/post.php file as follows:

Line 4404 was:

if ( ! WP_POST_REVISIONS )

but now, it’s:

// if ( ! WP_POST_REVISIONS )

Then I deleted all the revisions that had been saved to this point from each blog database by executing the following SQL statement:

DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = ‘revision’;

I then logged out and back into each site’s admin id and verified that the revisions saved thus far no longer appear on the Edit Post screen. The deletion apparently worked.   These instructions have now been verified to work with WordPress 3.0.1.

That’s all.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Deleting WordPress Post Revisions
• Disabling Post Revisions: 2010-02-17
• Disabling Post Revisions: WordPress 2.8.5
• Disabling Post Revisions: WordPress 2.9.1
• Disabling Post Revisions: WordPress 3.0
• Disabling Post Revisions: WordPress 3.0.4
• Today’s Business: 2010-10-31
• WordPress  Software Refresh: 2010-05-08

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!

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-10-29
• Today’s Business: 2010-10-30

Summary

Mom’s last day of  physical therapy is today.  The therapists feel that her legs have not strengthened sufficiently to warrant keep it going.  She’ll continue with her occupational therapy however for at least the next two weeks.  They’re transporting her home late next week for an afternoon, to conduct an in-home functional evaluation, to determine just how independently she can live here.  They’ll also educate the family at that time about what we must know in order to adequately care for Mom.  So far, no signs of MRSA return, and she’s received no antibiotics for a couple weeks.  That’s a great sign!  They performed what we thought was a transesophageal echo cardiogram earlier this week on Mom.  But this turned out to be a plain echo test and not the more extensive one where they take pictures of the heart from within the throat.  So we don’t believe this test will reveal enough data to tell if Mom’s endocarditis has been cured.  Thus, we’re requesting the more extensive test with haste.  Again, Mom welcomes visitors.  She’s getting much better at moving herself from bed to a wheelchair and from wheelchair to bath facilities; not so much due to strength improvements as her learning how to better utilize her remaining strength.  Skin color: a bit pale this morning.  Fever: none.  Mouth: very dry.  She was a little cold but that was likely due to the drafts in the seventh floor lounge where we visited with her this time.  Her legs are still week and wobbly, and while they’ve improved significantly over the past month, again, the therapists feel that further physical therapy at this point will not help her. But she continues to build her upper body strength to compensate and to better enable her to transfer from surface to surface without the use of her lower body.  I’m guardedly optimistic about her returning home, because both she and the rest of us will have to learn some new in orde to make living in her own home a viable possibility for her.   

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

• Track Mom’s extreme weakness and loss of feeling in legs. DONE.   Though the nerve damage she experienced during August appears now to have reversed somewhat given Mom’s accomplishments in therapy throughout the past couple months, it has not improved enough to keep going with the physical therapy.  That therapy is done today, and all we can hope for now is that her neurologist can find out why she’s unable to move her legs more, or that her body will heal itself in the months to come.     

Log

10:40 AM: Sister Jojo and I arrived and the nursing facility.  They had popcorn in the lobby for the residents and a big gathering was in progress in the first floor lounge.  It looked like they were preparing for a Halloween party. 

• We first went to Mom’s room.  Her roommate said that she was down at physical therapy.  So, we folded and put away the basket of clean clothes I brought for her, and then headed back downstairs. 
• We found Mom in physical therapy, walking across the room.  However, she had three people assisting her at all times.  So, she won’t be walking much if at all if she comes home, as there would not be that many people to help her around usually.
• We scheduled a home assessment for next week.  Mom and her physical therapist will come here and attempt to perform all the necessary personal maintenance tasks, to see if anything must be done to make this place more accessible for Mom. Plus, the therapist will show us how to lift and support Mom, and how to best pick her up from the floor should she ever experience a fall.
• Her PT is finished as of today.  However, they’re supplying her a list of restorative exercises for Mom to continue on her own.
• Her legs still appear quite weak and wobbly.  So she cannot reliably stand on them.  Thus, all her routines, should she come home, must be able to be performed without much help from her legs. 
• She can neither kick nor squeeze her knees together very strongly, nor can she lift herself up with her legs without extensive assistance.  These weaknesses could be a major barrier to her returning home.
• She can however, strongly spread her legs apart.
• I turned up her earpiece cell phone volume for her.  Hopefully now, she’ll be able to hear you better when you call her.
• 11:15 AM: Then, we went up to the seventh floor.  I really love that lounge.  We talked about everything and nothing, and I gave her $4 in spending money.  She says she hasn’t completely spent her last “allowance” yet, but was grateful for the additional green.
• 11:45 AM: She wheeled herself back to her room while we followed. 
• 11:50 AM: We said good-bye then, as her lunch arrived, and she seemed to want some time alone at this juncture.  Bye Mom.  We love you. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-10-22

Summary

Mom has been participating daily in her physical and occupational therapies.  Our visit today revealed our Mom we’ve come to know and love so much.  She has completed her course of antibiotics.  Now’ we’re playing the wait-and-see game for a couple weeks with the hope that the MRSA will not return.  They performed an echo cardiogram today on Mom, although we have no results yet.  Again, Mom welcomes visitors.  She’s getting much better at moving herself from bed to a wheelchair and from wheelchair to bath facilities.  Skin color: normal.  Fever: none.  She has not mentioned being cold very much lately.  Her therapists are pleased with her progress, which we did not think would come during the first week of this month, as she had reached a plateau in her progress.  But apparently her body just needed a little break from progress.    But now, she seems to be very much back on track.  Her legs are still week and wobbly.  However, she’s building her upper body strength to compensate and to better enable her to transfer from surface to surface.  The possibility of her returning home here looks now very much higher than it did two weeks ago, and we’re all quite tickled at this.   

Ongoing Objectives

These objectives are on hold until Mom returns to the nursing facility. 

• 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.
• Track Mom’s extreme weakness and loss of feeling in legs. IN PROGRESS.   The nerve damage she experienced during August appears now to have reversed somewhat given Mom’s accomplishments in therapy throughout October.  She’ll continue full OT and PT workouts.   
• 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

04:10 PM: Sister Mary Ann and myself arrived at the nursing facility.  Details of the visit follow:

• Mom led us up to the seventh floor lounge.  It’s very nice there with a huge plasma screen flat panel television.  The view from that vantage point was also quite spectacular; especially with the sun shining so brightly and the skies so blue.  A classic crisp fall day this was, for sure.
• We consulted with Mom’s physical therapist, who said that Mom is stronger now than ever, and that they’ve been working successfully on using a board to assist in Mom’s transfers from bed to chair and from chair to bath tub.  She says Mom’s doing quite well.
• Before Mom would come home, the therapist has agreed to visit our house, inspect the bath and bedroom facilities, and make appropriate recommendations for any additional equipment needed as well as railings and other aids that would be helpful to Mom given her current physical abilities. 
• They’re also building her upper body strength so that she can lift herself with her arms should the worst case scenario come to be; that being that her legs cannot be used to lift her up.
• We’re also curious about whether she can transfer to her favorite recliner. We may have to purchase a lift-style reclining chair if not.
• She’ll likely require a hospital bed if she does return home. 
• 05:30 PM: We walked to the nearby Texas hot dog place and had dinner together. 
• 06:40 PM: We finished at the restaurant and took Mom back to her room.  She gave me some clothes to wash.  I’ll do that and take them back up to her on Friday.
• 06:45 PM: We’re leaving now.  Great visit! 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-10-20

Summary

Now that Mom is settled in once again at the nursing facility, she continued her physical therapy there along with occupational therapy.  She seemed like her old self today when we visited her, and was excited to see the upcoming Steelers game this afternoon.  They’re continuing her anti-biotic a little longer; although now, they’ve cut her dosage back to one dose every 36 hours.  Mom once again welcomes visitors now that she’s stronger, and happier.  She’s managed to move herself from her bed to a wheelchair for the first time since last I wrote, and her friends who have visited her over the past week say that her skin color is quite good.  She still experiences coldness quite often.  So we’ve taken her some blankets, her coat, and hat.  She wears these items in the lounge.  The nurses wonder at this, but are not concerned that there’s anything unusual the matter with Mom.  That’s just Mom, we tell them. 

Deferred Objectives

These objectives are on hold until Mom returns to the nursing facility. 

• Track Mom’s extreme weakness and loss of feeling in legs. IN PROGRESS.  This has gotten notably better since her return to Altoona.  The nerve damage she experienced during August appears now to be quite reversible given Mom’s accomplishments in therapy in September.  She’ll continue full OT and PT workouts.   
• Monitor Mom’s overall pain status.  IN PROGRESS.  Her pain is almost all gone.  She doesn’t mention it at all anymore unless asked.
• 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

• Order podiatrist for regular checkups on Mom’s feet.  DONE.  A doctor who makes regular visits to this hospital is now monitoring and treating Mom’s foot troubles.   

Log

11:20 PM: Sister Jojo and myself arrived at the nursing facility.  Details of the visit follow:

• 11:40 AM: We arrived.  Mom was already up and buzzing about the room in her wheelchair.
• I took a card or two to her that came in the mail last week. She read and enjoyed it; smiling in varying degrees as her eyes scanned each hand-written line on its inner surface. 
• 12:15 PM: Mom led us downstairs to the television room, where we sat at a round table, and conducted the formal part of our visit. 
• She’s missing one pair of magenta-colored pants.  She wants us to pick up five to seven more pairs of pants of this type.  Sister Jojo and I will go shopping sometime this week for those.  However, she has lots of socks, and so, needs no more of those at present.
• She likes her new bedroom, and her roommate seems pleasant to talk to, and fully alert.  Mom has a buddy now.
• 12:20 PM: They brought her a chicken dinner for lunch, and one of the nurses offered Jojo and I a few slices of pizza.  At first, we declined.  But as we watched the box sitting on the next table over, the temptation to accept her generosity got the best of us, and we ate it.  Yum. 
• I told her that I was thinking of cooking a chuck steak for supper tonight, and she strongly advised me to pound it beforehand, to  beat the toughness out of it. 
• She’s been reading the newspaper and seems up on events of the day; which marks another big leap in cognitive activity for her.  Except for her problems walking, she in every other way, seems like herself again. 
• She still gets sad sometimes.   But she’s talked with others in similar situations to hers, and that’s helped her to feel better about her future. 
• 12:55 PM: We’re leaving now.  I think she might have wanted us to go, so she could get ready to watch the game.   

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-10-03

Summary

Mom continued her physical improvements.  I talked with her last night, and sister Diane visited her today.  We agree that she’s certainly more alert and that she had lots of reasons to be thrilled at her progress.  Today, she walked a few tens of feet across a room.  Yes, she had assistance.  But in my mind, this represents monumental improvement over how weak and disabled she was just three weeks ago.  Yet because, as she sees it, she’s only shown modest improvement physically over the past couple weeks, and not to the degree she wants, her sadness appears to be returning.  But some good news is that her memory still appears  good.  However, nurses are concerned that she likes to bundle up so tightly, so much of the time.  Her run of antibiotic was supposed to be done a few days ago.  But they’ve opted to keep her on a reduced dose for an as-yet-to-be-determined amount of time.  The monitoring of her condition has begun.  Again, we’ll watch for a return of her fever and other signs of a MRSA return.  Nonetheless, we hope that  if that happens, she’ll have less pain than before.  She now has her cell phone again.  So friends are welcome to call her and try to cheer her up. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-09-28