On the mend again

Marlene's journey has a lot of ups and downs, as everyone reading this blog knows. This week it's been on the upward swing.

Since Kristin's last post, Marlene has rallied again. Her lab results showed the infections have cleared. They've cut back on her painkillers, we think. At least they were supposed to. We have to look at their records. Kristin, Bob, our HAS advocates and a number of PacSpec personnel had a meeting last week to re-jigger Marlene's care plan, and so far so good.

Kristin has seen her behaving differently, and she seems to be responding well, is more awake, and had a really great conversation with Kristin last night. She was able (with help) to sit up on her bed with her feet on the floor several times, resumed her physical therapy, and had gone out into the autumn sunshine (in a chair) and enjoyed the colors of the trees quite a bit. Margie, the RN from HAS services, has been visiting with her regularly, as has Kristin. Bob has been shut down with a bad cold, so he's not allowed near the place. It's frustrating and boring for him, although he's been doing a lot of activities with the kids. They already have colds, of course- no harm no foul! We hope that once again, Marlene can move forward. Her next big hurdle is eating on her own. She is still being fed via the NG tube, and her digestive system and swallowing capabilities have to recover properly, and of course real food is way better than tube food. We're keeping our fingers crossed once again that she keep going forward, without the hindrance of infections, and hope y'all will do the same.

Tom

Mom continues to improve. She still needs a lot of rest, but she's doing OK.

rough time

It's been a difficult few weeks. As she was recovering from pneumonia, she aspirated on applesauce (nurses didn't prep her for eating like they should have), she went to ER on Friday 10/7 for more x-rays and tests. She went back to Pac Spec with antibiotics for UTI and aspiration pneumonia. Lab results came back on 10/10 saying she had a drug resistant ecoli (!). Although its very serious, it is apparently very common for women in nursing homes who have been on antibiotics and have UTI.

The meds she was given made her alarmingly confused and mentally altered (hallucinating, trying to leave, pulling out feeding tube twice). After two or three days she started to show improvements.

Additional tests are showing no growth and she hasn't had any fevers or temperature spikes.

She continues to improve and is even looking forward to getting some physical therapy today.
I know she is so tired of being in a nursing facility away from home. She is really wants to get home.

Please help us encourage her to stay strong and motivated so she can get home soon.
Thank you so much for all the birthday cards, letters and wishes. We greatly appreciate your love and kind words.

getting better

Mom continues her recovery from pneumonia. She seemed to be doing really well last week, but maybe she overexerted herself because she was very tired and sick Friday through Sunday. She's improving again, but still not up to doing any PT. It frustrates her that she's not feeling up to PT, which I take as a good sign that she's motivated to get better.

Which reminds me, she's also having vivid dreams that she swears are real. In one dream, they were having a $64 bottle of champagne in the hallway outside her room and she was yelling for Dad, me, and the aides to help get her out of bed because she couldn't move and she wanted to get out there. Sounds like she is very mentally ready to move on and join her life again.

Speech therapy is going well. They've been working on her swallowing and getting her to tolerate more solid foods.

pneumonia

Day 3 of pneumonia, recovering and resting well.
For as long as she was on the vent, I'm surprised she hadn't gotten it sooner.

Neurology

Mom had another neurology appt. where they did an electrical test on her feet/legs -- testing to see what sort of permanent nerve damage has been done. I think the staff at Pac Spec doesn't think she's making quick enough progress, but as we've all learned Mom has been recovering at a steady yet slow pace. There's definitely still some nerve damage in her feet (towards the toes), but none of it is permanent. Those are the longest nerves in the body, so it makes sense that those are taking the longest to heal. As long as she keeps up the PT and movements, she should continue to heal. The doctor even noticed her progress in the 5 weeks or so since he saw her last - not just in her breathing, but nerve/movement in her feet. ....proving again that her recovery rate is still very slow and steady.

She is continuing to work on her oral food intake. I think her trach is still healing and the feeding tube is still down her throat, so it is uncomfortable for her to swallow and not feel like she's going to throw up. Once the food travels past her throat, she's fine.

all good

Mom is doing just fine. Her voice is getting stronger. Her trach is healing.
For PT they've been taking her down the hall to the rehab room where there is a lot of equipment, machines, activities to help build strength. She took 5 steps on her own on the "parallel bar walkway."