Mom’s been doing great lately. She had a follow-up with her neurologist and said that she’s doing everything right. He did make a couple of recommendations for us though. She’s still dealing with some dizziness. He thinks it’s more than just fluid in the ears. Although it has improved, I still see her struggling from time to time with it. Her doctor wrote orders to start “vestibular rehab”, which is just therapy to address vertigo. I have a feeling she’s not going to like the treatment and may actually end up feeling worse before she’s better, but if it will help stop the dizziness at some point, she’ll thank us later. Mom is still having issues with her left hand continuing to ball up. She’s had a lot of pain with her middle finger in particular. If we can’t get it to straighten out I am afraid that it will form scar tissue and won’t ever be of use. We use her brace and thankfully we can still flatten it out when it’s on, but it curls back up shortly it’s been taken off. The doctor suggested that we look into botox injections for that. Botox has been very helpful with a lot of stroke patients in relaxing those muscles. Hopefully the doctor we’ll be seeing for that agrees and would be willing to give it a try.
I mentioned that mom will be having another respite stay coming up. Chad is taking me away next week for our anniversary! We’ll be gone for about a week and a half so mom will be back at Sunrise during this time. Hopefully things will go more smoothly than the last time. There wasn’t anything so crazy during her last stay – just a couple of things that needed to be worked out. I believe that’s been taken care of so this stay should be much better. I am hopeful! Since she will be there a little longer this time, I really hope she is able to start developing some friendships. We actually have another trip planned in April and she’ll be coming back again. Fingers crossed that she has a great time and might actually be looking forward to going back!
Mom continues to do very well with her therapists. Speech has cut back to once every 2-3 weeks. She still has PT and OT twice a week but I think that will be stopping within the next 3-4 weeks. She will either go to just once a week or may have to move to outpatient therapy. Outpatient therapy may end up being great for her. They have a lot of equipment that she will probably really enjoy using (bikes, parallel bars, etc) and it will give us an excuse to get her out of the house. Although to be honest, I haven’t really wanted to take her out anywhere because it seems that everyone is sick! If we can wait until the bulk of cold/flu season is behind us I may feel a little better. However, I won’t stand in the way of her progress. If it’s time to go I will make sure she gets there!
Say your prayers and keep your fingers crossed that she has a super-fun time at Sunrise when she goes next week. I am really hoping I’ll be able to post about all of the fun she had when we get back!