Kim is back at the helm! I have been back from vacation for awhile but haven’t taken the time to provide any updates. It’s been a lot of hustle and bustle since right before we left for vacation we were given a tentative discharge date. Since I’ve been back, we’ve been in a little “scramble” mode to try and get things ready for mom. Let me back up a teensy bit to try and jot this down in somewhat chronological order…
Cyndie did a great job with mom while we were gone. I had absolutely no worries that mom was in good hands. Unfortunately Cyndie was on the receiving end of mom’s downpours but to me that makes up for all of the time she’s missed here. Ahhh… sisterly love. 🙂
Mom has done remarkably well with her therapies. I think before I left she had gone over 70 feet with a lot of help from S and H, her therapists. The therapist had to use one of those loop things to help pick up her left foot to move it (I may have referred to that thing as the “invisible dog walker”). By the time I got back, she’s already ditched it! Mom was able to lift her foot just enough for S to slide her toes under to provide assistance. A little lift and some placement. Just one week later, S tells me that she’s not even lifting. She’s just guiding that foot. I can see that to be true. She pauses a second so that we can see mom lifting that knee to bring that foot up on her own. She doesn’t quite have the strength that she needs lift, hold, extend, and place that foot but she’s actually pretty close! And as far as distance goes, I didn’t get the official measurement but I bet she was pretty close to 100 feet today. It’s the farthest I have seen her go!
H, the occupational therapist, is working with mom every few days on dressing. Mom was able to take care of her entire upper half without assistance the other day. Mom belittles what she can do, telling me that it took her a full hour to put on a t-shirt but I remind her that it’s an accomplishment. She is getting closer to being able to do things on her own. It’s just not going to happen overnight.
She’s doing great with her eating. She has eaten pizza, sandwiches, and chopped salads with really no issues. We’re still working on thinner liquids but she is definitely coughing less. She just needs to keep practicing and remembering the techniques to protect her airways. Sometimes she gets a little too confident and forgets to tuck her chin. That’s when she runs into problems.
OK – now for the craziness that we’ve been experiencing… Actually now that I’m blogging about it I’m going to spare you all of the details and drama. I may have mentioned at one point (sorry, I’m too lazy to fact check) that she was given a discharge date of August 8. I thought that was a little soon and had been expecting her to stay closer to her 100 Medicare days which is closer to August 20. We had a discharge planning meeting this past Monday and I was expecting to hear that the date of the 8th had been changed. Well, as it turned out this was not to be. I was actually pretty angry and I pretty much stopped listening to the social worker at that point. Anything else she had to say was irrelevant. We have so much work to do to get the house ready. We don’t know what equipment she needs, we haven’t had a home assessment done so we understand what modifications are needed, we don’t know when/who/how will help with her care (CNAs) or what the deal is with therapy? How are we going to get her from place to place??? SO many things to think about.
This past Saturday we had a chair lift installed so we can get her from the main level to her room upstairs (Sam’s old room – she has taken over the basement and couldn’t be more excited). We lined up appointments with contractors to discuss remodeling the upstairs bath for her and making some changes to the half bath on the main floor. We went out and bought a wheelchair van on Tuesday… Yes – you read that right. We are now the proud owners of a minivan. There was actually an SUV that had been converted to carry a wheelchair and I REALLY hoped that one would work for us but unfortunately it did not. It looked beautiful from the outside but the inside was so small and really hard to maneuver around. As much as I didn’t want to, we settled on the van. I have to say though – it is actually very nice.
Today I got to take mom out to our first big appointment in the new van. It was easy getting her there and I think it’ll be really nice to have the freedom to come and go as we please. We can go shopping together, to church, out to eat, etc and it will actually be really easy and convenient.
Where did we go today? We went to see the GI! He remembered her from when he reinserted her peg tube a couple of months ago. He asked how she was doing and why she wanted it out. I think he just wanted to hear the reasons from her. She’s doing great, hasn’t been using, and he agreed that there is no reason for her to keep it. Initially he suggested setting another appointment at the hospital where she had it put in. It’s not a surgical procedure but some people prefer to be in the hospital in case something goes wrong. Then he paused, looked at mom, and said, “unless you want to do it now”. Of course she said to take it out now!! He did it so fast that I *almost* didn’t catch it on video. 😉 Mom did great. It stung a little but because it was so fast she handled it like a trouper. I could tell that the doctor wasn’t really prepared to do this, since he used the only piece of gauze he had in the room and two paper towels to close her wound. He said that it starts to close in about 2 hours. I am still waiting on the nurse here at Maple Grove to put on a proper dressing (we’ve been back for a couple of hours now) but mom appears to be fine. I just checked and she’s not bleeding through anything. After tomorrow she might only need just a regular band-aid.
Once we got back from her appointment, I was given the great news that the therapists talked about it and mom can definitely benefit for a little longer stay here. Her new discharge date is 8/18! Thinking that she was set to leave Maple Grove next week I had requested that we try to see if she could go to Healthsouth for a week or two. I already confirmed that they have a bed available so that was my next step if she couldn’t stay here longer. Now that she’s been extended I think our next step will just be home. Even if she can get into Healthsouth and the therapy schedule will help her, I think we are all ready for her to be home. I think she’ll be more comfortable being surrounded with family and it will definitely be easier on me since I will be able to take care of more things at home.
She’s come such a long way. I know that she still has a way to go, but she’s in the right mindset and is determined. As long as she keeps that fighting spirit I know she will continue regain more of her independence and that’s a day we all look forward to.