So sorry it has been so many days since there has been a post.
Not to worry. all is going well with Lena. She is improving every day.
We did have a couple of stumbles these past 10 days. We discovered that Lena is taking two medications that make her very sleepy. These medications are not ones that she must take, they are for her comfort.
One was for restless legs. We do not know who prescribed this medicine. Lena did not take this before her stroke!
This medicine had some side effects that interfered with Lena's alertness, and physical stability.
The other was a medicine for depression but it was given to her with the intention to alleviate any anxiety she was having with physical therapy.
Together, they were a bad mix.
We had to take some bold steps this week to discontinue these medicines. We felt that the medicine that Lena was taking for the restless legs was actually causing some of her recovery anxiety, and also nausea which decreased her appetite. The combination of these two medicines together was creating a very drowsy sleepy situation and mom's blood pressure became extremely low. So low, her physical therapy sessions were cancelled completely!
So, we are moving ahead now. Hopefully we will continue to see Lena get more energy now that she is off of these medicines.
Lena is still having a feeding tube at night to supplement her calories. She can eat pureed food on her own and doing well with that. She also has one meal a day that is called "mechanical soft". That is soft food that mom has to work a little bit more in her mouth before swallowing, like small peaches, cottage cheese, and ground foods. She is doing well with this one meal that is supervised daily by the speech therapist.
Every day John is with Lena. They have had many opportunities to go outside for walks, John pushing the wheel chair. Lena has enjoyed this greatly.
We will try to keep the blog updated more often. Really, we only had about 7 other things going on at the same time and also being intensely involved with Lena, and helping John manage the household at their home. Everything is going so great.
Thank you so much for the continued prayers.
We really appreciate your devoted attention.
I promise to have more photos in the next post.
Love always, Rosemary
ps: I am typing this post because Christina, the lovely daughter of mine that started Lena's Recovery Blog, --- went on a cruise, on a boat. She is having a fun time.
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