Wednesday Update

July 23
By Karen

(photo is Cameron and Karen at Universal Studies, Florida, this spring)

WOW! The roller coaster ride that we are on has reached a section of loop-d-loops! Mom had a terrific day today. She went to Lutheran Hospital for a CT Scan this morning; therefore, she was not in her room when Dad, Cameron and I arrived at about 10:00. When the nurse wheeled her in, Mom’s eyes were wide open and she was quite alert. This was a very welcome surprise for us. She greeted us all right away and began to ask questions about the day and to tell us about her excursion to the hospital. We discovered that they have discontinued the Valium and have begun to give her Provigil – a medication that will help stimulate her and encourage alertness. So far, it’s working!

Mom had a great session with the occupational therapist soon after she returned. This was exciting to watch, because the therapist conducted the same activity today as on the first day – matching the mosaic tiles to patterns on a card; however, this time she had the help of Cameron, Mom’s 11-year-old grandson. She began with the same pattern that she had given to Mom on the day of admission to the rehab hospital (red, green, red square tiles in a horizontal row to form a line). If you remember, Mom had seen a triple image of that pattern – a 3x3 square rather than a single line. This time Mom replicated the pattern easily. What a relief! This shows that her eyesight is improving. The therapist then moved on to more complicated patterns. With Cameron’s encouragement, she completed 3 more. As the patterns became more difficult, it took more energy and effort, but she kept with the task and showed the highest level of motivation for this type of task that we have seen so far.

Lunch consisted of a bite of pear that stimulated the gagging to which we are growing accustomed. It was not an especially distressing experience, but her inability to take in nourishment continues to worry us all.

During her physical therapy sessions she exhibited more improvement – even when compared to yesterday’s leaps ahead. The therapist taught Mom how to propel herself forward in her wheelchair by digging her heels into the floor and “walking” along the hallway in her wheelchair. This time she was responsible for all of her own forward movement – rather than the past attempts when the therapist actually did most of the work. Mom also was responsible for navigating her way. This meant that she ended up running into the wall on her left over and over, but she learned how to get out of that situation, as well as how to avoid it. This was gratifying enough for us to see; however, after she got herself to the gym, she walked with a walker and the therapist for 30 feet! This is a 50% increase from that first walk down the hallway she took yesterday. Throughout this entire session, Mom had her eyes open again. She seemed fascinated by the sights she was taking in. Her left leg often crossed the center line to the right, but she seemed to get the hang of it about half way through.

As you can imagine, all of these activities indicating Mom’s forward progress have raised the question of whether she really needs to leave the rehab hospital for an acute care facility. The team will meet tomorrow morning to review everything and they will let us know sometime after 10:30.

Another exciting moment was when I was sharing today’s greeting cards with Mom. For the first time she could read the words printed on the cards! She struggled with the handwriting, but the printing from the cards was clear and readable for her. This, coupled with the mosaic tile exercise today, shows us that her vision problems are beginning to improve.

In anticipation of a possible move, we visited the second acute care option in Fort Wayne, Progressive Hospital. It is a completely different atmosphere than what we experienced at Select, the facility we checked out yesterday. Progressive is in a newly renovated building and began accepting patients only in March. All of the rooms are private – they are spacious and beautiful. They also can easily accommodate the needs of the family members and friends when we visit. We feel strongly that this would be the better environment for Mom and our family. We’ll see what the outcome of tomorrow’s meeting will bring. Stay tuned…