Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2005. Mattie was almost three years old. Each spring we would take him to Butler's Orchard in Maryland to attend their Bunnyland event. Mattie loved being outside, Easter egg hunting, the hayrides, the corn mazes, and as you can see the toy trackers. In fact Mattie loved anything with wheels. 

Quote of the day: No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear. ~ Greg Kincaid

My mom had a pulmonary function test this morning as well as a pulmonologist appointment. The tech who did her 40 minute long breathing test was wonderful. Greg was patient and had a good sense of humor. He knows that patients do not care for this procedural phone booth or breathing into a tube for minutes on end. The test consisted of four parts. The first part was the hardest for my mom, as it involved taking a deep breath and blowing it out for six seconds. In any case she survived the test and then we met with the doctor. His whole office experience is wonderful and everyone is very kind and patient. Though my mom has bronchiectasis (from a long standing lung infection she has as well as the result of a life threatening form of pneumonia she had in the 1990s), the doctor feels treating her condition now would do more harm than good. As he says the drugs produce GI issues, including nausea and vomiting. This would be too debilitating. So instead she will do daily breathing exercises and see the doctor every six months. 

Fortunately my mom's doctor is located within the hospital my dad is receiving treatment. So we visited him at around 1pm. By the time we got to him he was completely disoriented, had no idea what time of day it was, and also did not recall having therapy. We asked him about PT and OT, and he remembered NOTHING. I mean absolutely NOTHING. 

Fortunately both of my dad's therapists came to find us and updated us about his day. My dad's PT knows I have trouble with my dad's new stair climbing routine. Mainly because the routine has my dad walking down the stairs BACKWARDS! You read this correctly, backwards. It sounds completely counter institutive to me. 

The therapist says this is the safest way for an older adult to walk down stairs, because older adults typically have more of a hunch forward, therefore if you face down the stairs hunched over, you are more likely a fall risk. I get what he is saying, but I also know it is much harder for me to spot my dad when we are both walking down the stairs backward. In any case, I practiced it with the hospital staircase with both my dad and the therapist. I still say the hospital stairs are very different from my staircase at home, which is steeper and the treads are more narrow. 

As you can see when I got home tonight, I started practicing walking down the stairs backwards like instructed. I have to be able to do it since my dad won't remember anything. He simply follows instructions. 

I have to admit that I got very frustrated today and needed time away from my dad's room. His cognitive issues at times are beyond wearing, as he will ask the same question over and over again. There are things he gets fixated on and won't let them go. For example, the hospital gave him a plastic basin during his stay. He wanted to know if I was going to take this thing home. No matter how many times I answered him, he wouldn't let it go. So the only way to manage this was I had to pack the basin and take it home. 

In addition, for the last three days my dad thought it was discharge day. So the next mantra was "I am ready to go. When are we going?"

The dining service at the hospital gives patients an orchid with each meal. I have been saving them in water in my dad's room. Tonight I brought all of them home. Why? Because my dad was obsessed with the flowers and wanted to know when I was going to bring them home. When I am telling you he asked me about them at least 50 times, I am not joking. So again, the only strategy I have learned to end this repetitive cycle of questioning is to remove the object from his field of vision. 

We head to the hospital early tomorrow, as they say discharge is at 10am. It took a whole team to manage him in the hospital. It's only me managing him at home, so we shall see how this goes.