Friday 3-29 Pictures

Clean, dressed, and ready for the day!

(Snazzy socks courtesy of my mom/Rosemary.)

Getting transferred to the wheelchair before therapy... 

Sitting pretty in the wheelchair, ready for therapy.

And back in bed after the "unresponsive" episode.

(Note the boot thing they have on her foot.) 

Friday 3-29

Grandma was pretty alert in the morning.  Nurses came in, cleaned her up, got her dressed, put her in the wheelchair in preparation for therapy, everything doing well.  She was waiting for therapy, watching tv, and then Grandpa said the next moment she was slumped over and sleeping, another episode like before where she was unresponsive. Nurses and therapists came in, put her back in bed, and ultimately Grandma awoke and said she didn't know what happened or remember anything! Physical therapy was cancelled for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, though. Grandma was awake enough to have some food with the therapist (some on her own, some fed to her).

At some point they strapped some boot thing on one of Grandma's feet, to protect her from getting a sore on her right heel-- the restless leg issue is still present and they don't want Grandma to develop a sore from rubbing her food on the bed.  As you can imagine, that thing started to bother Grandma and she wanted to take it off.  Grandpa got someone to come in and talk to her about it and explain its purpose, and was Grandma saying things like the sore didn't bother her and that she was 98 years old** (?!) and has maybe only a year or so to live, did not want to put up with this contraption, etc, etc. So the two argued for a bit over this and Grandma apparently held her own until ultimately Grandpa intervened and convinced her to at least keep it on through the weekend.

An hour later, Grandma asked Grandpa what the year was and how old she was and where she was. Grandpa says, "When I gave her the info, she first argued I was wrong and I think she was not quite convinced when I left."

** The "98 years old" comment I think comes from Grandma's confusion about just how long she's been in treatment; the "year or so to live" bit is something she's said before.  Grandma has had some difficulty with remembering people's visits, things about her progress, how long she's been in hospital/rehab, etc.  We are hopeful that her ability to remember things will improve with time (memory issues are pretty common with stroke), but we'll just have to see how things progress.

A psychiatrist visited, and talked to Grandma about whether she had depression or trouble sleeping, indicating that he could give her medication that would help. Grandma explained that she does not like medications and later told Grandpa that "a psychiatrist is the last thing I need," and "wait 'til he is my age." Ha! That sounds like Grandma...!

No therapy this weekend, except some Physical Therapy with a guy named Jonathan. Grandma said, "Ok, we can do our own therapy," to Grandpa. Adorable.

Thursday 3-28 Pictures

Physical Therapy and Speech & Swallowing Therapy.

Thursday 3-28

It's been a busy week but I'll do my best to get some posts up about the last several days as soon as I can.  Here's last Thursday; I'll cover Friday and the weekend tomorrow.  -Christina

My mom/Rosemary visited this day.  She said Grandma was sleepy but not all out groggy like she is on some of her tired days.  

Physical therapy came midday and put some electric muscle stimulator things on Grandma's legs to help her leg muscles work again.  She did not like it and that it felt terrible, trying to tell the therapist to take them off...!  After about 20 minutes (while mom and grandpa tried to distract her from the irritation of the treatment), the therapist took grandma to the physical therapy room, where they worked on a number of upper body exercises in front of the mirror..

Mom reports that while the nursing staff at the rehab center are passable, the physical therapy staff are excellent and very sweet with Grandma. This is great!

Grandma occasionally has a bit of trouble with remembering the year, her age, how long it's been since she had the stroke, etc.  She apparently told one therapist that she has not used her right side (arm or leg) for 4 or 5 years... When you explain to her her error she usually understands but sometimes questions -- she asked Grandpa the other night her age and when he told her 90 she said there "was something not right" about that.

After physical therapy (about 30 or 40 minutes) they took her back to the room, she sat in the wheel chair awhile longer, and then asked to get back in to bed since she could not keep her head up for much longer. Grandma does not have the muscle strength to manage her right side very well, but it is improving... just after PT she was particularly worn out.

Again, mom moved the chairs to keep Grandma's attention on her right side to encourage her to use those muscles and develop that strength. 

Speech and Swallowing therapist came with a tray of food!  Pureed carrots, pureed beans and rice, apple sauce and honey milk [I'm not sure what this is... -Christina]. Grandma did great and probably ate about 1/4 of the food there including drinking a sip or two of the honey milk from the cup.  Yay!

Grandma does continue to have some issues with short term memory.  For instance, she will ask for something from the house (shoes, blanket), but when Grandpa brings it she asks, "What did you bring that for?" Also, while she may have a really good visit one day, she won't necessarily remember much the next day, which probably is a significant contributor to her feelings of loneliness. We'll have to keep an eye on this.  Apparently this is pretty common with a stroke where Grandma's was, but we'll have to see how this develops; hopefully it improves.

Grandpa has also mentioned that in a lot of pictures, Grandma looks just like she was before the stroke, which I think is due to Grandma regaining control of her facial muscles; you'll notice she doesn't have as much of the right-side droop as she had right after the stroke.  (Yay, good job Grandma!) But as Grandpa also cautioned, the pictures also could give a misleading idea of Grandma's condition.  She does pretty well, but she is still has a long road to get back to "normal."

Overall, a good day.  Subdued, but good. Hooray!

Wednesday 3-27 Pictures

Pictures from Grandpa

 

Physical therapist & occupational therapist working with Grandma

 Grandma listening very attentively to a paper Joyce was reading to her

Grandma reading a card from Linda Barbour a friend from choir

Wednesday Was a Better Day

Joyce sent an update yesterday afternoon (1 PM) that was great!  See below (with some minor edits here and there):

When dad had left mom yesterday afternoon [Tuesday], she was sleeping deep, after a morning sleeping pretty deep through just about everything.
Well, we got to dad's about 5 PM and he wanted to go to the store, so Andrei and I went over to the rehab.

Mom was awake in bed looking sort of up at the TV.  She responded well when we got there, and was immediately talkative. She was very bright eyed, very lucid and clear. Her face had no droop, and she in fact looked fabulous.

I asked her some questions about the day, and she didn't remember much, but was very aware that she is out for periods of time.  She called it "off the map".  She talked on and on about how amazing it all is, that she is alive, that she can do what she can, but also how it is that she can tune out like that, and then come back and understand everything. She explained this very clearly. She was able to say that she is very much in the now. I asked her questions we have asked before- date, place, where she lives, kind of car she has, who is Lizzy's fiance, where does John live, etc etc. She got everything right. She seemed in awe as though she feels herself coming out of a deep sleep. That's the way she sounded and the things she said were so coherant. I brought in some lace with some French writing on it, and she read it and translated it. Overall, just very remarkable for me, but it seemed as though she realized this too.  I mean it.  She did mention in the beginning that she didn't really like it there though, because she said often she was alone and no one ever came to see her. She said she couldn't do anything about it, if she was cold or wanted to contact someone. That part she still couldn't get a handle on.

Anyway, dad showed up and she was sooooo happy- really excited to see him. Very cute. Throughout the evening, we reminded her that people had come to see her such as the doc and the pastor, and she did not remember. She is aware of the fact that she cannot remember this tho- and when I ask if that concerns her, she says yes.  I remind her that its going to get better, and to keep in her head that we are all, visiting all the time. After awhile, she was tired and decided to go- the nurses tuck her in.

We came back this morning [Wednesday].  She was awake. A little subdued, but still really with it. Almost like she is playing a game with us- like she knows the answers. Anyway, she had on some electrodes- they were doing muscle stimulation with her- a treatment that sends currents to her muscles - helping the brain to make new pathways to her muscles, to them moving. This was on her right upper arm.   Anyway, the nurses cleaned her up and and PTs come to the room.

Together, the two girls got her up in a wheelchair- she did well- now drooping and falling over.  Then a session of almost an hour I bet, of leg exercises, arm and feet exercises, neck and shoulder. And sit up straight. She was unbelievable attentive and successfull. The PTs were thrilled and complementary.  We thought she was pooped, but then the speech therapist (ST) came by quickly to do come swallowing with her. We got her apple juice and yougart.  You would not believe how enjoyable this was to watch. She was totally awake and cooperative. She laughed at our cheers and her progress. She had about 8 spoonfulls of yogurt and 6 sips of juice, of which she held the cup at the end. The ST asked about her food preferences and said in the end, that by the end of the week, she thinks she might be able to get a tray!  She is coming by tomorrow to eat a watery lunch with her. We were able to share the info about how she eats very slow, and her issues with that. Nevertheless, the ST was impressed. After all of that, she was tired, but not that zoned-out tired.

The nurse aid came in, and mom was put to bed for a nap. We have left to have lunch at home.  So far, so good!

So yeah, very good news all around.   So glad to have this great update from Joyce. :)

Tuesday 3-26 Pictures

Grandma in physical therapy in the morning.  

Working on bending and stretching legs.

Feeling kind of tired after physical therapy in the morning.

After being woken from a really deep sleep!  

(Sometimes I wish I could sleep that deeply...!) 

While this was another pretty sleep day, hopefully Grandma has some more alert days ahead.  This weekend is Easter and it would be wonderful to see her happy and alert for that. <3

Tuesday 3-26

Grandpa said that in the morning Grandma was kind of sleepy and not saying much.

Two therapists (Susan and another lady) dressed her in pants and a tee shirt, put her in one of those narrow straight back wheelchairs, rolled her to the exercise room, and withed with Grandma on bending her legs. Grandma had trouble holding her head up, was kind of tired.  Grandma was able to see Grandpa's car out a window in the exercise room. :)  Eventually, Grandma wanted to go back to bed so the nurse helped Grandpa take her back and get her settled, and she took a nap.

When Grandpa returned from lunch, Grandma was still sleeping.  

The speech therapist came, but they couldn't wake Grandma so she said she would come back.  Grandpa put on some loud music, and tried to get Grandma to wake up, but she still slept...!  The therapist came, and then a nurse, as everyone started to get a bit worried.  Her vital signs were fine.  Ultimately there were about 5 people in the room (including the Chief of Nursing Grandpa thinks), unable to wake Grandma, and then someone tried opening her eye and shining a light in it... which finally woke Grandma up to everyone's relief.  When this was later explained to Grandma, she said she felt bad about it, didn't know that was going on, but Grandpa reassured her and said that everyone was just happy that she woke up.

Grandpa put on some André Rieu music (cute classical stuff Grandma likes) and kind of danced with the laptop to the music, back and forth.  Grandma I'm told said to Grandpa, "You better not do that." Grandpa asked why not, to which Grandma said "you are not line with it," meaning Grandpa's rhythm was off. Ha!  They watched some more music videos on YouTube (great for Grandma; she loves music so much and I'm sure it helps with her brain's recovery) and then Grandma took another nap.

Unfortunately no speech/swallowing therapy again today.

The dietitian came in to introduce herself; Grandma would have been interested in this (since she keeps up on nutrition, etc.) but she is still asleep. The dietitian's only message was that Grandma's feeding has been adjusted for the high blood sugar -- I guess this is something that has come up recently but I'm not sure.  

It's difficult to put together these overview posts from all the emails and messages and other snips of information I get.  I usually write these just before I shower and go to bed and sometimes I'm so tired and I just rephrase and edit these emails so I apologize if the posts are sometimes a bit choppy.  Hopefully at least gives you an idea of how things are going...  It's a lot easier to write when I've visited in person, which I might be able to do this weekend.
Thanks.  -Christina

Monday 3-25

Grandma was awake when Grandpa arrived early in the morning.

Physical Therapist (Michelle Wilson) came in for an evaluation.  She had Grandma sit up with support, bend her arms and legs, etc.  Her right side is still weak, but hopefully that will improve with time.

Two other ladies from the facility came in: Tiene A. Gruber, Director of Nursing and another (Director of Social?)  Grandpa said one of these women came regarding Joyce's phone call and said she would investigate the issue the day before with the improper meal.  Grandpa said both of these ladies were very friendly.  (Joyce says she spoke with Missy Epps, the hospital RN and then Lisa McDonald, a Director of Nursing, maybe at the hospital? So many names to keep track of, but I'm putting them in there in case we later need to know who spoke to us about what...)

A nurse's aid came midmorning to clean up Grandma, and help her into pants and a tee shirt!  I'm sure it was nice to have some real clothes on for once... 

Grandma took a nap for awhile after that while Grandpa met with Marcia Matthews, Admissions Coordinator.  Grandpa discussed with her that we had heard Fairfield was better but were giving HH a try to see how it goes because of its closeness to the house.  She said someone from the Heritage Harbor Health Group (another medical facility where G+G have received checkups from time to time) would be there Wednesday for some kind of meeting.

At some point, Grandpa asked Grandma about putting on the TV, but Grandma shouted back, "No, I thought we were going home!"  When Grandpa explained that she was not ready yet, she said "why not, why can't we go home," and Grandpa very gently explained that they have to first make sure you can walk, etc.  So then they watched Grandma's show, "The Price is Right."

Not much else to report from Monday; Grandpa said they kind of sat around "waiting for things to happen," but not much.  I've been trying to think of some things Grandma might enjoy doing on days she's a little more alert... She's not able to do her cross stitch, she doesn't like to read or watch too much tv... Hmm. Let me know if you think of anything.

Sunday 3-24 Evening Pictures

Sunday afternoon, Grandma was moved to the Heritage Harbor (HH) rehab center again.  Those nurses there, well, I haven't seen for myself, but they seem to be a pretty flakey.  (Good thing Grandma has Grandpa, my mom, my aunt, and other visitors staying on top of these people!  Man!)

Apparently there was some sort of mixup -- When Grandpa arrived that evening right after the move back to HH, he found that Grandma was given a meal that evening that she definitely cannot eat -- As I understand it, she is still only cleared for pureed foods and honeythick liquids with the supervision of a nurse (in case something goes down the wrong pipe), but is receiving most of her nutrition through the stomach tube, which should be very clear in her file. But they plunked down a fish sandwich, fries, and veggies for her!  

**I think Joyce is trying to get in touch with the Director of the place to find out who messed up.  

Grandpa complained to the nurses who apologized and said there was some kind of mistake (not sure how you mess that up).  Grandma was "very alert" and "took everything in stride."  Two nurses also got Grandma all cleaned up for the night, and Grandpa helped Grandma figure out the TV remote, the remote with which she can call a nurse, etc.

Grandma also complained of a dry mouth and while it took awhile to obtain them, Grandpa managed to get the nurses to bring some of these sponge-on-a-stick things they use so Grandma can get some water without worry of choking (on say, a full glass of water).  Yay, Grandpa; a hero!  

Grandma also said something to Grandpa ("this thing is quite an ordeal") which he took to mean that Grandma is likely becoming a little more aware of her situation.

Lots of love and hugs for Grandma's recovery, and Grandpa's heroicism and wonderful, sweet support! What a wonderful man Grandma married.