Dec. 30 11:00 a.m.
Shapiro Building, 8th floor
(Anna made the appt.)
When I went to the Wellness Center at OC to make follow-up appt w/Dr. Brinckerhoff, I was told that there is no need for it until after Dad is discharged from Braintree, because he has a PCP at Braintree while he’s there. They received info & were updated on Dad’s case by the BI and the same goes for Braintree now.
I found Dad sitting in his wheelchair in front of the nurses’ station when I arrived. He was really tired after his a.m. of therapy and was anxious to rest in bed, which he did shortly thereafter. Lisa met w/me at noon, after the team meeting. She told me that they are expecting that Dad will be there for 3-4 weeks. She said because of his physical strength and the fact that “He has good movement in his left leg”, they are encouraged that he will be able to walk again. One key factor for that to happen, though, is for him to be able to visually find his “midline” in order to have the balance needed for walking. She said that this is essential for walking, and so they will be working a lot with him on moving his eyes. So far, she said, they haven’t seen a lot of progress in that area (though he was able to move them once) but will definitely be working on it.
After the 3-4 week period they are currently planning on, they foresee Dad going to a skilled nursing with rehab/therapy facility for the next stage of his recuperation. I asked whether OC would be a possibility for that, and she told me that she would be checking that possibility, since she is not familiar with what they offer and that she was aware of our preference for OC, since Rick had already discussed that w/her.
She also explained that Dad has “cognitive deficits” in terms of recognizing the limitations of what he can do, and because of that he will not be able to live independently and will always need “24-hour assistance”. She said that some people do improve (and he may) in that area, but she made it very clear that they don’t expect him to improve enough to be able to gain complete independence. She mentioned options being a family member living w/him, having a 24-hour companion service to assist him in his own place or possibly an assisted-living situation. She did, at one point amend her comment a bit by saying that he hasn’t seemed to have too much trouble at night, so we’d have to wait and see whether he would definitely need nighttime care or not.
The points I made to Lisa:
1) I asked her to let the team know that it’s very important to work on getting him to the point where he can answer and talk on the phone when no one is in the room with him. Her 1st reaction was that she’d ask OT to position the phone where he can reach it, but I pointed out that the added complication is the fact that his left ear is the one that hears. I suggested that if they thought a special device –speaker phone or something– would help, we would certainly be happy to get it.
2) I asked if a podiatrist makes the rounds periodically (answer: yes) and requested that Dad be put on the list for the next visit, so his toenails will be trimmed.
3) I inquired about the availability of a laundry service that we could pay for. There is none, but she said in cases (like ours), where there’s no family member who can take care of it, they ask OT to work it into their therapy schedule. They have a washer & dryer to use w/patients as practice prior to discharge, so they can “throw in a load” (once a week) at the beginning of a session… Of course the therapists are busy, so they what they do is take a little time from the therapy to do it when the patient is not at the point of working on it himself.
4) Since Dad still hasn’t had a shave, I asked her about and reminded her that his electric razor is in the drawer. She said that because of the Coumadin, they are very cautious when it comes to shaving but that they would do it.
5) What I didn’t think of asking her until I was home at night is who Dad’s neurologist is (Dr. Kumar told me there are two at Braintree) and when he saw/will see Dad. I spoke w/Steve about it, and he will get that info from Lisa.)
Dad had a short visit from Gladys & Willy, but since it was after lunch and after his strenuous a.m., he was pretty tuckered out. Nonetheless, he spoke w/them, telling Gladys (as he tells all visitors) how good the care is there but also telling her he “can’t wait to go home”.
He also had a 4-p.m. visit from Maria Candida (Rodrigues Nunes), one of the OC cleaning women, who brought him flowers and a card. He managed to read the complete message printed inside the card, and when I encouraged him to move the card around until he could see where she had signed it, it took him some doing, but he finally found it! He talked a lot with her and thanked her a lot for the visit when she was leaving. Later on, he had a surprise visit from Karen, who works at the OC concierge desk, who stopped by to see how he was, after her therapy session for a vertigo problem she has. Dad chatted quite a bit with her, too.
When Steve called in the evening and wanted to say hi to Dad, I offered Dad the cell phone, which he took with his right hand and put up to his left ear! just not positioned quite right for him to be able to hear, but I was very encouraged to see that!
Later in the evening, Dad was very bothered by something on his feet. When he asked me to remove his socks, I did, and when he asked me to remove his socks again, I removed the sheet and cover. Then when he continually asked me to remove his socks or “whatever’s on them”, we discussed it w/nurse Tamyka, suggesting maybe it was just dryness that was driving him crazy, so she gave him a nice massage with lotion on his feet and legs – relief at last!
[added by Steve]: Lisa asked me to add a note that she left Dad's apartment keys at the OC concierge desk when she left on Tuesday.
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