WE DID IT!
The training by the Physical & Occupational Therapists was so complete and thorough that we made it thru the night without incident. The spaghetti and meatball supper was good. Kat stirred the sauce standing at the stove and tried desperately to crack the spaghetti in half – but she did a great job eating this special meal. She hadn’t eaten much crusty or hard food and the bread that I put garlic butter on and heated in the oven ended up being crusty. She ate it with no problem. She usually spends 80% of her day in the wheel chair (with the other percentage working out in OT and PT along with bathroom necessities. At 4:15pm on Monday, she walked out of the wheelchair and never returned to it until 7:30am the next morning! That means her supper, her night visits to the bathroom, etc was accomplished by walking back and forth! She showered herself in the tub (just like we have at home) and got dressed and undressed with minimal help! I was so proud of her. Sleep was compromised as she fought not being able to turn as she did in the hospital bed since she uses the metal bars. She is going to talk more with the therapists about this. One of them had her roll on her stomach today. So she still learning. All in all WE DIT IT in the ADL room overnight!
The family meeting was held at 10:30 this morning. A Doctor, RN, two Case Workers, the Occupational Therapist and the Physical Therapist along with Kathy and I were at this meeting. Much was discussed at this meeting. The Dr. spoke about meds and needing to follow up with the Neurologist from Dartmouth. Apparently, the cause of the stroke still needs attention. This is why she is on the blood thinner and will be for a while. The Case Worker explained that he contacted our insurance and that special provisions beyond the cap are available, such as the paying for wheel chair and possibly the hemi walker she uses to walk. Further he mentioned that the local center for OT and PT has accepted Kathy as a patient. Both therapists agree Kathy has advanced but recommended continued therapy as an outpatient. They further agreed that she has the drive to continue so as to realize a possible full recovery.
Thursday they will try to get her to see the eye doctor as some vision on the left quadrent has been affected. The Dr. said he is interested in hearing about any improvement since her last check up about a month ago. Some folk have offered help when she comes home and we will need it as she is not allowed to move out of the chair without supervision. More about this in another post.
It will be a new chapter for us when they give the final word this Thursday at team meeting and she’s discharged on Saturday. The tentative Friday release was scratched when the PT therapist wanted to work with her one more day. They also will be making a home visit tomorrow afternoon to see how she can get around and make suggestions. Kat will be with them on this visit. So this is an important week.
More to come …
