It’s been about a week now that mom has been on more of an upward trend. She’s still a bit lethargic and tired, but nothing near what she was early last week. We’re hoping that supplementing her with iron pills and getting her back to using her CPAP at night might help her to feel more rested, even though she says she’s sleeping well at night.
She get PT and OT six times a week and Speech Therapy five times. She does get a bit worn out, but she works hard with her therapists. She has a couple of guys that she works with on the weekends who are AMAZING. The other therapists during the week are good too, but she really connects with these two in particular. The OT doesn’t act like a therapist. He’s more like a COACH. She really likes that. We found out that he does do some time during the week as well, so when he’s in he will have mom on his schedule. We are all in agreement that this news is fantastic.
I had a care plan meeting today with basically every department represented. The staff here really is great. We got feedback from therapy, her nurse, and the caregiver that was working with her today as well as talked about any issues or concerns that we have. What was most surprising to me today was that they never brought up discharge dates until I did. Even then, it was just to say that they don’t have one. Not that they think she won’t ever leave Heritage, but more to say that they aren’t in any rush to push her out the door. They are really most concerned about her safety and that she gains the skills she needs to in order to move back to Morningside. They aren’t concerned about her plateauing yet. Even with just the little bit of work that she’s been able to do they see the potential that she has. She wants to get better. Mom is still holding onto her goal of being able to walk again. We all think that she will get there. It just might take longer than she wants it to, but she’ll get there.
Once mom’s time is up, she can move back to Morningside if she’s ready (and has met certain conditions) or she can decide to continue living at Heritage. There are others that live there long-term. It’s definitely a higher level of care than Morningside, but it’s definitely an option for her if she wants to do that. At lunch today, she did ask me how long she could stay there. I told her for now it’s as long as she needs to, but when she gets better and stronger, it will be for as long as she wants to. I think she understands the difference.
I can tell that mom is starting to feel a little bit better. We have been encouraging her to eat in the dining room as much as possible. Breakfast is too early (they start serving at 7). Since she’s not a morning person, usually her caregiver makes sure she’s up and she gets breakfast in bed. She has had showers between 6-630, but that means that she goes back to bed, has breakfast, then takes a nap before getting out of bed and dressed around 10:00. She is allowed to have those leisurely mornings. I’d rather she sleep as much as possible so she has strength for her therapy sessions. Yesterday I took her to the dining room for lunch and she ate with another resident. This lady lives across the hall from mom, is also Korean, but has no family. I was told that she spends most of the time in her room, even though the caregivers keep trying to get her out. I think over the last week the caregiver has been mentioning mom to her and she agreed to go to lunch together. She is a very sweet lady and is actually quite talkative. I think she tires easily, so getting her out for dinner in addition to lunch might be too much for her right now. Everyone was absolutely thrilled to see her headed to the dining room. Hopefully she and mom can learn to keep each other company when no one else is around. Mom did ask to go to the dining room yesterday for dinner, but apparently her food was already on its way to her room. I told mom that she can go for dinner anytime, but to let her CNA know so that they know they need to take her down. I was actually a little surprised that she wanted to do that but I was so happy to hear it.
Mom still looks a little sad and is very quiet. She says she’s just tired and has told Cyndie that she’s happy. I think it took all of this for her to start accepting her situation. She doesn’t fight with anyone and she hasn’t tried to get up by herself. It probably helps that she still has some pain and she’s may be nervous to try anything like that anyway. She’s learning to make new friends and I do believe that she is making the choice to learn how to be happy. I think that’s really important. As long as your spirit remains strong there is reason to be happy. She is learning to adapt and this is a great thing. We all still need to exercise patience, but I am definitely encouraged after these last few days.