Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
Good day - bad day today. Estelle was very alert when I arrived at 9AM this morning, and somewhat unhappy. She says she does not like it where she's at and she wants to come and live with her children. We talked for awhile about why that was not possible and explained that we would be close by and would be available whenever she needed anything. She was worried that she had not talked to her children and asked me to call each of them and she then talked to Dan, Mark and Vivian in quick succession which seemed to make her quite a bit happier. She also got a phone call from her old neighbor, Sandy, which she totally enjoyed.
We then spent some time looking at old pictures and talking about what she could do. (Such as sit in the chair, go outside, watch television, be read to, listen to music, go to activities, look out the window, talk to her roommate, make phone calls to anyone she wanted to talk to, etc..) We also talked about what she could not do at this time, which was come and live with one of her children because she needs specialized care at this time. She asked me if I had noticed that she has "changed," and we talked a little about being sick and what it does to a person and how it doesn't matter to people who love you.
All in all, it was a sad visit but I think a very positive one. To me, once you understand a situation it becomes much easier to accept it and to work to improve it. She is very interested in getting up in a chair and PT evaluated her this afternoon and we will find out tomorrow what their recommendations are. (Everybody say a prayer, please.) She also wanted me to clean her face and told me that she used to put lotion on every night so I promised to bring lotion and help her apply it every day.
She was getting tired out by noon and I left shortly after that, promising to come back with Dan after work.
After work, however, seems not to work so well. Once again she was sleeping and we were unable to wake her so we did not stay long this evening. Dan is going to try to adjust his work hours so that he will start later and leave later on certain days thus freeing him up some mornings to go in before work when she seems to be most receptive to visitors and conversation.
She looks very good. Her eyes are focused almost all of the time and she tracks things and people appropriately. She's moving her arms purposefully and seems to want to do more things with her hands. (She even asked me for a pencil today because she wanted to make a list but wasn't sure what she wanted on it.) She's moving her head more in order to look at whoever she's talking to and she's charming all the nurses with her politeness and gratitude for everything they do for her.
Still no phone in her room - hopefully tomorrow. We do have our cell phones with us whenever we visit, however, so feel free to call. It is almost preferable to use the cell phones in a way because we can put it on speaker phone and it seems as though she hears better with the loudspeaker on than she does when I hold a regular phone to her ear.
Once again, thanks for all the emails and phone calls. We do read the emails to her and tell her about the calls and the well wishes that we are getting on her behalf.
**It would also be great if people could send her pictures. She really seems to like having them put on her "board" and she likes looking at them. They are good reminders of people we do not get to see often. I know I love getting pictures of my children and grandchildren (as do we all!!) and I thought if people sent some to her she would really enjoy having them surrounding her bed.**
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