The meeting actually took place yesterday, but I was too tired to do the update.
Overall, mom is doing great. The meeting was fairly short, mainly because I already knew a lot of what’s been going on with her (therapy-wise). Mom was recently upgraded officially to mechanical-soft foods and ground meats. On Monday, she’s going to try a soda to see how she does with carbonated beverages. She still has issues with regular water so she will continue on with nectar-thick liquids for the time being (unless she’s with the speech therapist). She hasn’t had a bolus feeding in over a week. All of her medications have been given by mouth – crushed up and put in either applesauce or yogurt. The only thing that has been going in her peg tube is water twice a day. She’s been able to maintain her weight so there really isn’t a reason for her to keep that thing in. YAY! I think the dietician tends to take a more conservative approach though – it’s been really hard for me to get specific plans from her sometimes. I was able to push a little and as of right now, mom is scheduled to have lab work done on Thursday to make sure she’s properly hydrated (among other things) and that she won’t need her tube for anything. I am hoping to have a good report by next Monday and then I can schedule the tube removal! I’m headed out of town that week so will likely wait until we get back to actually have the procedure done. Cyndie will be here while we’re gone but I don’t want to put this on her. I just want her to enjoy her time with mom and not have to worry about any complications arising. I’m sure it’ll all be fine and we may change the plan (if everyone agrees) just so she can get rid of it sooner rather than later.
Mom continues to do well with her PT. She’s focusing mainly on standing and walking. She’s been able to pull herself to standing unassisted but she still needs a lot of help when taking steps. My hope is that she gets really good at standing and pivoting on her own so that it’ll be easier once she’s at our house.
Speaking of that, looks like we *might* be looking at a discharge date around the 3rd week in August. That’s when her Medicare benefits will be up (100 days of inpatient). None of the therapists are recommending discharge just yet, which means that we can continue to take advantage of the more intense therapy schedule here. Currently she gets therapy five times a week. Once she comes home, it will most likely only be three times a week and only for 30-40 minutes a day. I’d hate for her to lose momentum but for all I know she may be well enough that it’ll be OK. So many things to think about but nothing we can do yet.
So overall – she is doing amazingly well. I am so proud of her progress. She is still pushing to live on her own. She knows that she’s not ready to do that just yet but thinks that maybe she’ll be ready next month. Of course I’d love nothing more but we still need to figure out a back up plan in case she’s not.