Making Some Headway

It seems that the people at the top really want to deliver on their policies but just don't have the staff to carry it out. The day may start out well enough but then things come up...like physical therapy might be going on when its time to turn so they'll come back later but then they themselves get involved in something else and they don't. Bill wants to remind them on the dot of two hours and I try to give them a chance and wait 20-30 minutes and then it ends up being 3 hours between turnings.

I am much happier with the bathing here. It seemed rather helter skelter at the other place. Here he gets a real honest to goodness hosed down bath every Tuesday and Friday and sponge baths daily. (It was the real baths we missed at the other place and I'm sure that even though we spend a lot of time at these places it is possible to work in sponge baths when we aren't there--he once got one around midnight.)

The bedsore seems to be getting smaller--half a centimeter isn't much but its a step in the right direction!

I'm trying to get Jon to eat more and requiring a certain number of bites at a meal--doesn't matter which food and he can certainly eat more than the required number which he occasionally does. Tonight he had a pureed tuna sandwich that even I thought had too much dressing and vinegar, Italian wedding soup, pureed pumpkin with cool whip, and tomato juice. One bite tuna, the rest went to the soup!

He had another informal swallowing test after lunch. He ate most of a small dish of fruit cocktail and had no problems. Will go through another in the morning and maybe a real honest to goodness one with barium and if all goes well will get real food for supper.

I finally decided that we needed a schedule of things to do throughout the day instead of sleeping it away. So the last couple of days we've done exercises for breathing, swallowing, arm wrist and hand range of motion and leg and foot range of motion. Most of these things could be done several times a day and we were lucky to get them done once. I think I can see some improvement and if we keep it up we might start to see some real progress.

It seems that Jon really bugs the staff when we aren't there. He even told one nurse he just wanted to see if they really would come if he put on the call button. They decided he was suffering from anxiety so put him on yet another medication. I said that he had been driving me wild all day and that was why I left early so I could understand the temptation to solve the problem with a pill but there really ought to be a better solution. Tonight after napping a bit he asked me where a box was...I asked what box and he said the box with all his bones! Then said Oh, I must have been dreaming. As we were leaving tonight I asked his nurse to document any other off the wall comments as we have been trying to get medication reduced and he gave me a thumbs up...we'll see.

We're having a trying time getting the waivers set up for help with ramps and modifications to the house, a bed, etc. Seems that I made a goof when Jon was moved from Ft Wayne to Green Springs. Thank heavens for social workers who have knowledge of the system and can do the untangling!

Thanks for checking in.

Now that the weather is nicer we hope to see more visitors. Jon yearns to be closer to home but there aren't that many places in the state with this kind of program.