9-18-2022 Getting stronger, a little at a time

(Tricia)

We have certainly had an "up-and-down" week. About a week and a half ago, Linda began getting very lethargic and unresponsive, and her temperature began to rise. Our caregiver recognized that these were likely the signs of a urinary tract infection, which can be deadly in the elderly if not caught early. But we called the hospice agency and they had an antibiotic sent right over. It was a third one on top of the two she is already taking, but it was only for a seven-day course. Had that antibiotic not worked, they would have needed to take a culture to identify what antibiotic would be most effective, given the bacteria involved.

Luckily, Linda started to come around by the time she had taken her second dose. She just ended the course of that antibiotic Friday night, and she has grown more lucid and energetic since then. From now on, it's having her drink water, water, and more water! That's the main way to prevent another UTI in the future.

She has received a couple lovely letters from her best friend in Mountain View, which she has enjoyed reading. We appreciate that so much, because it’s so nice for her to receive news from home!

Meanwhile, we have continued with her physical therapy.  That was a challenge last week, because she understandably did not feel well because she was still coming off the UTI. In addition, the third antibiotic seemed to make her even loopier than usual. But the PT says that Linda has been showing small improvements with each session, which is all we can hope for. Her physical therapy consists of working through leg exercises in bed, before the PT then gets her up to sit on the side of the bed. From that position, Linda holds a table or a bar that I use for pushups, and tries to use her core stomach muscles to sit on the edge of the bed and stay upright on her own. When Linda first started her therapy a couple of weeks ago, she needed to have someone behind her to hold her up. The week after that, she could hold herself up with a pile of pillows propped up behind her. 

This past week, she was able to hold on and keep her balance for a few minutes at a time with no pillows at all.  We even had her do a few "pull-ups" in which she would pull herself a few inches forward and back as she held onto the bar.  After a few minutes, she does start to lean to the right--the PT explained to us that elderly patients will often lean toward a bad hip, possibly because it relieves some of the tension in the muscle. But when she does start leaning, we adjust her so she is sitting up straight again. So, far, she has been able to build up her time sitting like that from a few minutes up to 12 minutes. The goal is that she will be able to sit up on her own, without assistance. Once she gets to that point, the PT will approve getting Linda a walker, so she can start practicing standing up with assistance.

On non-PT days, we sit Linda up ourselves, and then do our best to get her up in the wheelchair.  Today, we knew Linda felt better because she asked to get up around lunch time. We got her into the wheelchair at 1:00. She ate lunch, and then we ran her through her leg exercises--including some work on an under-the-desk pedal "bike" that Marilyn donated to the cause. (Thank you, Marilyn!) Linda can't quite get the pedals to go all the way around yet, but she can push them back and forth with both legs, and I also have been moving the pedals around to get her knees loose and pumping. Better yet, she actually seems to enjoy the exercise, so that particular piece of equipment is a winner.

She stayed up in the chair until around 5:00, when we told her she needed to lie down for a while, to get off her bottom to keep the skin from breaking down again.  And then, in an unusual move, she wanted to get up again for dinner! So we got her up again at 6:30 and she stayed up watching television with us until around 8:45. Getting her up for meals like that is the ideal, but Linda often objects if she's not feeling up to it. So, today, she obviously felt good.

Near the end of the evening, as she began to get tired, she got somewhat loopy--for example, she insists that our single-story ranch home has multiple stories (she keeps asking us to "take her upstairs"!), and she also insisted for a short time that Marilyn was here, and would not believe us when we told her Marilyn was at her home 15 minutes away. But once she was in bed, she calmed down. She is now comfortable, watching television with the caregiver as we get ready for bed.

It was a good day. We need more of these!