8-22-2021 Sunday - same old-same old

 (Marilyn)

Arrived 9:00.  She was eating breakfast and actually did a good job.  Then she started asking to go home and I told her, as usual, she couldn't go anywhere until she could walk and talk and in order to walk and talk she needed to cooperate with physical therapy.  She said she will not cooperate because she shouldn't have to exercise if she didn't want to.  And as usual she said she was perfectly able to walk.  I said "show me" and she wasn't able to.

Her lunch came around noon and she started to eat and then cried out in pain and said her right arm really hurt.  That arm seems to hurt periodically ever since she fell.   X-rays hadn't shown any problems but tomorrow we will talk to the Nurse Practitioner to see what we should do next.

At any rate she said she couldn't eat because she couldn't lift her right arm.  I asked if she would eat if I fed her and she said yes.  So I fed her and she ate it all.  Is it possible I was conned??  LOL

For some reason she can't tell the difference between night and day.  To her, it's always night.  For instance at 10:30 AM, she will say "I guess Tricia isn't coming."  I say, "She'll be here at 6:00 tonight."  She looks at the clock and says, "Then she's 4 hours late.   She's not coming, is she?"  Tricia has even bought several clocks hoping to help Linda get it straight but so far, no luck.

I left around 1:00.  At around 3:30 my phone rang and the read-out said it was NHC.  I answered and it was Linda.  She said, "I'm at the bank and I'm ready so could you pick me up?"  I asked her to give the phone to whoever was with her and it was a nurse named Daphne.    Daphne told me that nursing home regulations require that if a resident wants to use a phone they need to make that happen.  She gave the phone back to Linda and Linda said, "So are you coming to get me?"  And I said, "I'll see you soon."  She said, "Does that mean you're coming?"  And I said, "I'll see you soon."  And we hung up.

This is getting more and more depressing.  There is nothing worse watching her crying and begging and knowing there's nothing you can do.  And it's also infuriating to see her refuse to do the things that can help her get what she wants so badly.  Tricia periodically asks her when did she become a quitter.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

12-25-2022 Merry Christmas to all!

Image
(Tricia) Since Linda came home from the hospital in November, it has been much quieter than it was before she went in.  No more physical therapy, very few nursing visits. Hospice started up again two weeks ago, but Linda has turned down most services (such as the bath aide and chaplain). She has been telling us that she wants to rest, so we are giving her that. She does get up in her wheelchair almost every day, which at least gives her a change of scenery. Last Tuesday, we did take Linda to a previously scheduled doctor's appointment with a neurologist specializing in cognitive issues such as brain injury and dementia, at a practice is called the St. Louis Center for Cognitive Health. I almost canceled the appointment, because I didn't think much would come of it. But this was an appointment I had rescheduled after canceling one in July the last time she was in hospice (and I had made that appointment in March-- the joys of American healthcare). When I canceled the July appoin...
Read more

3-24-2023 "Never Roger, always Ed!"

Linda's brain injury has brought with it a host of maddening symptoms, but one of the most prevalent is that it has made her not just unable to remember people's correct names, but at times seemingly unwilling to. This has been especially true for Ed's name.  For some reason, her brain is convinced that there are actually two males living in this house--one named Roger and one named Ed. When we ask her what each one looks like, she points to Ed and says, "They both look like him!"  And, of course, when we ask the obvious follow-up question, "Then why do you think they're two people?" she will respond with some version of "Their hair is different" or "They wear different clothes." We don't know where this comes from. We don't think she's connecting Ed to her neighbor in Mountain View or our cousin in Indianapolis (hello to both of you!).  But the mix-up has been there since she first started talking after coming out of ...
Read more

10-4-22 Quick update

(Tricia) I just wanted to post an update about how things have gone since Linda was discharged from hospice last week. We took Linda in to see Dr. Kevorkian on Saturday, and he decided he wanted to wait to remove the drain in her right side until she was at home and lying down. So, he's actually going to make a home visit this Thursday for the drain removal. He also has now established the start of insurance-covered PT -- they will be coming in to evaluate Linda on Friday. This is bittersweet, because we really like the private pay therapist who has been working with Linda to this point. She has helped Linda improve considerably, and she seemed genuinely sad today when I told her about the switch.  But I am having her come at least one more time (on Thursday). From there, we'll see how St. Luke's Home Health's PT services work for Linda.  Today was a PT day as well, and it went very well. Linda sat up on the side of the bed with some assistance for 10 minutes--a record!...
Read more