Ack...I thought Dan had done a post for Monday but apparently he did not.
Briefly, Dan visited Estelle again on Monday afternoon. I did not accompany him this time so I am recounting from his recount.
He said Estelle was only partially awake and only some of the time but that she was more alert than she had been Sunday when we were both visiting so that's an improvement.
I know that he said she talked with both Viv and Meryl for a bit so that is good news, too.
The nurse had called us earlier that day to notify us that she had a small blister which had opened up under her right arm and they were asking permission to treat it with an antibiotic ointment. When he arrived at Woodbine Dan asked the nurse to show him the wound site but Mom was not cooperating with lifting her arm very well so he did not get a very good look at it. The nurse said it was quite small and they had noticed it while bathing her. They will, of course, continue to monitor and treat as needed.
Mom was not very talkative with Dan on Monday and the nurses report that she has been less communicative with them, as well, and has been for most of the week. I am unsure as to why. They also told us on Sunday that her blood pressure has been rising again and they are keeping an eye on that, too. It seems to spike just a bit before her blood pressure medicine patch is changed so perhaps they will need to increase the dosage or decrease the time between administering patches. They do have suction at the bedside now and she is occasionally receiving oxygen again as needed. For awhile she was not needing it but now that they are getting her up in the chair more often her sats are once again falling. For every action there is a reaction, I suppose. It's a shame, though.
Other than that things remain the same. It is impossible to take her out lately - we are having a horrid early summer and the temperatures are in the high 90s by midmorning. The quality of the air here is not good in the best of times and when the temperature gets this high they are constantly issuing breathing alerts to DC and VA residents warning anyone with breathing difficulties or heart problems to please stay indoors.
I am unsure when I will be next able to visit with Estelle. I am in the middle of trying to get my own mother on Medicaid in Indiana and since my filing skills are not the best I am spending countless hours trying to gather together all of the information necessary. Between that and daily phone calls from the State of Indiana and the financial offices at my mom's nursing home I'm tearing my hair out. It all needs to be completed by early next week so I'm kinda in a tizzy.
We do stay in close touch with the staff at Woodbine, however, and they are great at keeping us informed with even very small matters so we are confident that Mom continues to get good care and that we will be notified immediately if her condition should change.
I apologize for any shortness Dan or I may have shown to anyone lately....it's been a really rough couple of weeks for both of us - between huge work projects for Dan and my own health issues and my mother's impending Medicaid application it's been hard to keep up with everything and everyone.
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