Sunday Dinner

Mom with her Brother and Sister.

We drove up to have Sunday dinner at her Nieces house in Springfield. Mom had a really good day today. Her speech, swallowing and gait were all better than usual.  She had a wonderful dinner. She also got to spend time with her Sister, Brother, and other loved ones. Time with the people she loves is the best medicine for her.

It was a good day! Thank You to my Cousin.

Another week.

Mom had a pretty good week. We got her out of the house quite a bit this week. Nothing exciting, just running errands, but I know mom still like to go. The head nurse was out on Tuesday and said she looked good. She is going to call the neurologist to see if there is any news from the MRI. The speech therapist was out yesterday. She said she will probably only be out 3-4 more times and Medicare will discharge mom. They have to show progress for them to continue paying for the therapy. Mom was trying really hard, and did well considering. She can barley move her lips now, and has trouble moving her tongue. I think the therapy would and does slow down the decline in speech, but not improve it. We'll see.

Fun Day at the Movies

Most of what I post as of late is negative, and I need to focus more on the positive.

Today was a pretty good day. Got mom up and dressed. Her hair was still done from the night before. The aid curls moms hair and styles it whenever mom will let her. My Wife, Daughter, Mom and I all loaded into the truck and headed for the movie theater. We saw "This Means War". It was pretty good. Everyone seamed to enjoy it. Then we all went to dinner, at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Mom even ate and drank a Coke. All in all it was a good day.

New helpful technique

With moms vision issues getting worse, she has been having trouble finding the channel she wants to watch. She just can't see the remote. With TV being one of the few things left that she can do, this is a big deal to her. She had been paging quite often, to ask me to find her channel for her. Many times I would go in to check on her and shes staring at the wall, because she got frustrated trying to find the channel, gave up, and turned the TV off. She didn't page me because she didn't want to bother me. 

We came up with a very simple solution. Moms favorite channel is 7. We put a piece of Velcro on the channel 7 button. Whenever she losses her place she feels for the Velcro and presses the 7 button. Then if she wants to watch another channel, she feels for the channel up/down button and counts to the channel she wants. So far this has worked really well.

Speech Therapy

The speech therapist was just out for a session. This visit was another evaluation. Medicare noticed that mom is not making any progress, and has asked the therapist to reevaluate mom. If no progress or anticipated progress can be shown they are discontinuing therapy. They are cutting her down to one visit a week starting this week. Mom is really upset.

MRI of the Brain

Due to moms rapid decline recently the neurologist had mom get an MRI of the brain to see what is going on. She just spent almost an hour in the machine. The technician said she should get some results in 3-4 days.

Another rough day for mom.

There has been a very slight but steady decline for the last month. I'll say "today is a bad day", and a few weeks later that day would be considered a good day. Out of the last 5 therapy sessions, the therapist stayed for 1. Mom was just too tired or upset. Her right leg is moving less and less. She could barely walk today, and fallen once. Not to mention the close calls. I fear that she won't be able to walk with the walker much longer. I hope I'm wrong.

The neurologist called today and scheduled an MRI of the brain for Wednesday. She also has a number of test lined up for next week.

She cried most of the day today. I spent the entire day with her today. Lots of hugs.

Biggest scare yet.

Thought a pancake would be soft enough. Mom started to choke on it and turn blue. I could see the panic in her eyes. I was panicked too. I picked her up out of her chair and did the heimlich. It finally dislodged. We are going to have to be very careful.

Trip to the Neurologist

Mom went to see the neurologist today. They were a little concerned with the rapid decline in her condition. They asked a lot of questions, and did blood work. They also changed her medications. She is to discontinue taking the Gabapentin that she was taking to help her sleep. They have her increasing the dosage on the Trazodone for four weeks and increasing again after that. Hope it helps her sleep.

The neurologist called later in the afternoon and said the blood work all came back normal, but they want her to have an MRI of the brain this week. More to come.