1-30-2022. Happy (?) Birthday to Linda

(Marilyn)

Today was Linda's birthday.  Ed, Tricia and I brought food, balloons and gifts to NHC and we celebrated Linda's birthday in her room.  She was crabby and after looking at her presents and eating her meal, she went to sleep and slept all day while the rest of us watched football.

She constantly asks to "go home" and says she will do whatever it takes to get out of there but then will refuse to work with the physical therapists.  She gets quite mean and combatant.  Brain damage is so weird.  

This morning she was crying and told us that she is being so mistreated.  We asked her how they are mistreating her.  She says they make her get up.  We tell her that's part of the therapy to get her walking again.  She says no, it's not. (If we tell her the sky is blue, she says no, it's not.)  She says they push her around in the bed.  We tell her they need to do bad-baths.  She says they tell her what to do and she does not want to be told what to do (that's the old Linda coming out....).  So she cries and cries.  It is heartbreaking.  

So there's really no good news to report.  Breaking her hip has really set her back.



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