It goes without saying that Mom has coordination issues, and severe weakness on her right side. She has a bit of shakiness in her left hand, but not all the time. Despite all of her deficits, Mom is smart and determined to do things on her own. A good thing most of the time.
Thursday night I came home from work to find Mom had almost completely removed her brief. I bought new ones the night before and they are more like underwear than the giant diapers we have been using from the hospital, the material is a bit softer and they have some soft elastic at the waste. And they do not have the Velcro closing. The are like underwear. The size is a little bit big, which is good for comfort, but Mom moves around so much that this night she must have bunched them up and they were bugging her, because she was not wet at all. From the view of what she physically accomplished. Whoa.
She managed to get the brief off on the left side. This means she brought her leg up close enough to her chest to get her foot out of the leg hole, and used her left hand to maneuver the material. The right side of the brief had been torn completely open like the regular diaper. This was not an easy task. I tore the other side to see how difficult it was. While it was fairly easy for me I had to get a good grip and pull a bit to get a tear going because of the elastic at the waist. Mom did it with one hand. The brief was completely removed from underneath her with only a small portion on the right side stuck under her right thigh. She was working on this when I walked in the room.
She had visible relief when she saw me. I could tell by the look on her face she had been working at it for awhile. I said, Hi Mom, looks like you could use some help. Her reply an audible Yeah. Upon closer inspection discovering just how far she took the process. I was so pleased. She confirmed that the brief was bugging her and chose to have the hospital diaper instead.
Now yesterday, we did our thing all day. Mom was restless in the bed, but refused to get up. I am not fighting with her about this...yet. However, I do reinforce that moving makes everything better and laying in bed 24 hours a day is not the road to recovery. She just rolls her eyes at me or sometimes she nods and shrugs. I just keep speaking the truth.
Nurse Lyn came by around 1:30 to check all Mom's stuff. BP good, Heart good. Lungs good. Skin good. Mom was not in the mood for company, it has been a big week, but she suffered through.
I told Mom earlier that I would have to go to the grocery store after Nurse Lyn left. I repeat things often because Mom is clear and present most of the time, occasionally she is someplace else. She seemed to understand and she nodded when I said I was leaving. Willie was home with her to make sure she was breathing and fix her tv if she pushed a wrong button. I was gone about an hour and a half. Bank. Gas. Food.
When I returned I went straight in to see Mom. The door was closed, if both tvs are going you need the barrier and Willie was watching a movie. I opened the door to find Mom had thrown all her blankets and pillows to the floor. I asked her, Hey what's going on in here, Mom.. I asked Willie how long since he looked in on her said about 20-30 minutes. I tried to put things back in place and she just threw stuff back on the floor. OK, there is no denying that Mom can make herself clear. I shifted her back to the middle of the bed, checked to make sure she was clean and dry and went about the business of unloading the truck.
Last night at dinner time, Mom ate 3/4 cup of clam chowder. This is the most she's eaten in one sitting that I have seen, with the exception of the éclair, lol. We saw with the éclair, Mom is perfectly capable of feeding herself if her left hand is not shaking, and the food sticks to the spoon. Clam chowder is not one of those items, so feed her. I blended the soup for the most part, but I left a few small bites of potato so she can practice chewing. She did fairly well, but lost a couple of bites of the bigger potato out the right side of her mouth. But when she drank water during dinner, she insisted on holding the bottle and drinking herself, no straw. Mom does seem to have a bit of trouble with depth perception and sometimes it takes a try or two to get the bottle where it needs to be at her lips.. But she tries hard and there's a towel under her chin, so more power to her.
I cleaned up dinner and such and came back sometime later, probably 40 minutes or so, to give Mom her evening meds. She was angry and not having any of it. I figured she was still full from dinner and said I would come back later, which I did. Half an hour later she was just as angry, and refusing to take her meds. I reached for the tube and she yanked it out of my hand...OMG pissed off, we've all seen that look on Mom's face. I calmly talked to her and presented my case for cooperation. Nope. I reached for the tube again and she about came unglued. She pulled in the tube so hard, I checked to make sure she didn't pull it out. Oh she's stubborn. She must have seen the fear on my face as she softened up just a bit, babbling at me, not screaming, but she took the end of the tube, held it up almost teasing me and stuck it inside her pajama top, put her left hand over it and gave me the challenge look, like, "Go ahead, get it now, bitch." This made me laugh and while she was not amused, I just calmly told her through my laughter, I will not fight with you, this is your choice and I hope it does not send you back to the hospital.
Week one done. Learned a lot, and looking ahead.
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