Hi everyone -
Here are today's (4/27) updates on Laura's progress:
- She had a very busy and productive day - no time for napping today!
- She has had no further headaches or pain meds for a few days now. Hooray!
- She did not need an anticoagulant shot today.
- The double vision was GONE when she woke up this morning! (No more groovy glasses!) Her left eye is a little blurry, so reading is still a bit difficult, but she is thrilled about not having double vision anymore. Such fabulous news!
- She continues to have the "almost tingling" sensation on and off in her face, and she discovered today that she could feel her cheek near her jawbone. She's not sure whether that area had been numb or not, since she has been so focused on the front part of her face (left side of her nose and lips), where she is experiencing most of the numbness.
- In the midst of all of her progress today, she did have a temporary letdown. She admitted she was sad about her face not looking right to her - it's not the same as it used to be and she was wondering when and if she will look like herself again. Completely understandable.
- She told her doc that she wanted to go home on Wednesday. The doc was fine with that and arranged for her to talk to a case manager about discharge plans. (And her doc was not pleased to learn that Laura had no PT on Saturday, as she was supposed to.) The case manager and the therapists were not happy about her wanting to go home on Wednesday, but she is determined to prove to them that she is ready - and from the day she had today - it sounds like she is!
- She had very productive PT, OT and speech therapy sessions; however, she was scolded by the OT first thing this morning, when she was caught leaving the bathroom with her walker instead of the wheelchair (Oh no!
). Apparently, she is supposed to use the wheelchair to get back and forth. The problem with this theory is that the nurses keep the wheelchair parked in the shower, so even if Laura wanted to use the wheelchair (which she doesn't), she would have to
walk to the bathroom to get it. Hmm...
- She had a lot of exercises today and did really well with all of them. She walked without the walker (they had her wear a belt so they could check her balance, if necessary, because she leans to the left a little); walked over and weaved through sets of cones; practiced learning how to get in and out of the shower properly for when she goes home; hit a balloon back and forth (fun!); and kicked and trapped a ball with her feet (she conveniently forgot to tell them she was a former varsity soccer player, figuring they would be more impressed with her coordination if they didn't know that
). She did all of this unassisted and with very few balance checks. They were very pleased with her progress.
- She got to do some outside PT today, which included going up and down five flights of outdoor stairs (about 75 steps each way). She said she felt great doing this - a little fatigued, but not bad, and no dizziness or nausea at all (she took anti-nausea meds before PT again this morning). She held the railing only lightly, and was pleased with her balance and pace going both up and down. Very impressive! Tomorrow she will practice getting in and out of a car.
- For speech therapy, she performed really well on most exercises (looking at a picture and writing a few sentences about it, drawing the hands on a clock, etc.), but the one task in which she underperformed was listing as many animals as she could think of in one minute, and also listing as many "s" words as she could think of. On both of these, she started out okay, but then ran out of things pretty quickly (not because her brain wasn't working right, but because she is terrible with stuff like this - even before her surgery). She laughed when she told me about trying to convince the therapist that she wasn't cognitively impaired - she was just bad at lists (particularly those that involve the rapid fire naming of farm animals, zoo animals, etc.)
- Alas, these posts of late would not be complete without a food discussion, so here is today's. For breakfast, Laura had her usual cream of wheat, a fruit plate, and some cottage cheese. While eating, she decided to add some fruit to her cottage cheese (not my particular taste, but I know a lot of people like that). The fruit at her disposal included cantaloupe and honeydew melon, strawberries, and grapes. Which one did she decide to add to the cottage cheese? That's right, the grapes. The small, oblong, slippery fruit with skin that nothing sticks to (like cottage cheese, for instance). Good choice. Luckily, she was eating it with a soup spoon so she could at least scoop up some cottage cheese with her nonstick fruit. Ah, the adventures of eating.
But what was the best part of Laura's day today? The surprise visit from fellow ANer Brenda (Teff)! She was THRILLED that you came to visit, Brenda!
Have a good night!
Barbara
