Tuesday Update

July 15
By Karen

Today included both ups and downs for Doreen. As we entered the building this morning we were greeted by another rehab resident who was sitting outside reading the paper. She told us that she sat next to Mom at breakfast and that Mom was in good spirits. Next, the nurse told us that she ate a good breakfast (her whole bowl of mandarin oranges, a few bites of hot cereal, and a bite of Danish, but Mom wanted a roll with pecans). The nurse deliberately put Mom at a table with 2 women who held a conversation with each other across the table – she hoped that Mom would be stimulated by the interaction of these women. She said that this had worked and Mom had opened her eyes quite a bit to see what was going on around her.

The breakfast experience seemed to exhaust Mom. She slept through the attempts of the speech therapist to get Mom to wake up and work on her swallowing at 9:30. Donna already had planned to work with Mom over lunch and she rescheduled the morning appointment to the middle of the afternoon.

When the occupational therapist came to work with Mom at 10:00, she got her to awaken and transferred her into her wheelchair to work in the gym. Mom did a great job of sitting up on the edge of an elevated mat. She worked on her balance by picking up bean bags from a pile placed behind her back and handing them to me as I stood in front of her. She had to open her eyes to be able to hand them to me, and she did so of her own initiative. She even tried to toss one to me at one point! It was very satisfying to see her make this kind of move on her own.

Lunchtime was one of the biggest frustrations for us all today. The speech therapist sat with Mom to try to get her to eat. Unfortunately, with the first bite in her mouth, Mom began to gag and vomit. They ended up whisking her out of the cafeteria, taking her to her room to clean her up and change her clothes, and then putting her in bed. This experience completely wore Mom out. She slept for an hour or so to recover from this incident.

She had 3 successful therapy sessions this afternoon – 1 with the speech therapist and 2 with the physical therapist. She participated in her speech session with more enthusiasm and effort than we’ve seen for days. I was standing in the hallway outside of Mom’s room talking to my brother Stephen on the phone during this session, and I could hear Mom’s voice travel all the way out to me as she did the vocal exercises. This was exceptionally exciting! I ran into the room so that Stephen could hear her. He was extremely impressed to hear the strength of her voice. This was a real “up” for the day. The physical therapist worked with Mom on her leg strength to stand and transfer back and forth between the wheelchair and the bed and the wheelchair and toilet. Mom did quite well in these activities.

Supper resulted in no more than 2 bites of bread with margarine and apricot jelly and a few sips of water. She told me that she can’t think or talk about eating too much because it makes her nauseous. We are not pushing her too hard to eat at this point, because we need her to get over the nausea and think of eating in a positive way again.

Mom is continuing to show some signs of confusion. For example, she told me tonight that a friend of hers is pregnant. This is friend of hers from her Mt. Morris days in the late 50s and early 60s who has moved to N. Manchester with her husband during their retirement. I said, “Mom, she is not pregnant.” She replied, “Yes she is. She just told me during my therapy session this afternoon.” I said, “Mom, she is close to your age. Can she get pregnant now?” She said, “Yes.” I was startled by this answer, and asked, “Mom, can YOU get pregnant now?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “You and your friend are not able to get pregnant anymore, are you?” She said, “I know, but she is pregnant.” I asked more about where she got this information. She finally told me it was when her friend was helping her in the bathroom. Ah ha! Her physical therapist IS pregnant, and just shared that with us this afternoon. However, her name is Lisa and she is a young woman in her 20s, not a woman in her 70s.

Mom keeps us on our toes and we never know what each day will hold. I guess the one constant is – mandarin oranges! It’s nice to have something to rely on.