12-5-2022 Quick update--all is well at the moment

(Tricia)

After Linda's being in the hospital for two weeks and the house being empty of caregivers, it is now strange to have slipped back into the old routine. But we are back into an odd kind of rhythm, with Linda's movies and classical music (now classic Christmas music--love Bing Crosby) playing into the late evenings, and her occasionally yelling out for me or Marilyn to come save her when she doesn't like what one of the caregivers is doing!

Over the weekend, we put up the big Christmas tree in the family room, and a small Christmas tree in Linda's room, decorated with crocheted angels that she used to make us as gifts every year. So, that makes the house a little more festive.  

Linda's "angel tree"
(It looks a little wonky because it toppled over last night
when one of base supports broke! It needs a little
TLC to straighten everything out again)

Although Linda had the hospice evaluation last week, we have not had the formal intake, so we are not yet back into that whirlwind of visits by a nurse, bath aide, social worker, etc. They are supposed to come do the actual admission this Thursday.  But Linda has been doing well since getting back--better, in fact, where her oxygen is concerned. When she went to the hospital, she was on 2.5 liters of O2, and now she's on less than 1.

She is fairly alert, but as always, doesn't want to be bothered too much.  Last week, she asked me, with a pained look on her face, "So, when are those frightful people coming back?" And when I asked who she meant by "frightful people," she said, "You know..." and then waved her arms up and down as if she were exercising.  "You mean the physical therapists?" I asked.  And she nodded her head with a grimace. I had to laugh at that!  I told her she could relax, because they weren't coming back. It made me sad to say it, but it made her quite happy to hear it. :-)

She does ask to "get up," though, almost every day.  We get her into the wheelchair and bring her out to the living room to watch TV with us and eat (most often her favorite food--hot dogs!). But standing her up is now complicated by the fact that she has to wear a full-length leg brace on her right leg for at least the two more weeks, in hopes that the nondisplaced fracture in her knee will heal. And our fingers are crossed that it will. Before she went into the hospital, her knee was swollen and painful to touch, but now the swelling is gone and she says it doesn't bother her much. That's a good sign. In fact, she has complained of pain in her knee only once since she got home, and that was when she begged us to let her try standing up with the walker again. We found out then that she could not put all her weight on her left leg, so we likely won't be able to try that again until she has been cleared for it.

Before, I was very focused on trying to have her do her physical therapy and get out of bed as much as possible, because I thought there was still a chance she could rebound once again. But now, I'm trying my best to let her take the lead and just let whatever is going to happen, happen. That is incredibly hard to do, though.

At the moment, she is out in the living room in her wheelchair, watching one of her favorite British mystery series called "Agatha Raisin." I had asked her what she wanted for lunch, and she said, "You know what I want." And when I asked her again, she said, "You know, an 'anti-duclinate.'" (At least, that's what it sounded like to me--your guess is as good as mine!).  And when I asked her what it was shaped like, she put her hands in front of her making an oblong shape. I then knew what it was, but I was being ornery and wanted to make her say it. :-)

And she did. So right now, she's eating--you guessed it--a hot dog! Today, she's doing OK.