Update and Beach in In the Meadow

My mom is in a short-term rehabilitation unit. I like this place because the therapy she has been getting is great. She gets physical therapy twice a day as well as speech therapy. The bad part is that they don’t give you very much information. The nurses have been great about telling us how she is doing. I haven’t been contacted by her doctor since she was transferred to the rehab unit, which was a week and a half ago. Last night I tracked down her nurse and learned that her official diagnosis was a urinary tract infection and a series of mini-strokes. Today I spoke with her speech pathologist who explained the situation to me. Over the course of her life my mom has had six very small strokes. The effect of them is starting to add up on her. She has been having difficulty walking since she got the uti. She has improved on this a great deal since she started physical therapy. When she first got to the hospital she couldn’t put any weight on her legs. She has been standing with the aid of her walker and doing puzzles and games. She has been able to walk a little bit. The speech pathologist also thought she was having some memory problems and excessive sleepiness. The speech pathologist and I were talking about it and she thought the short-term memory problems dated to a time earlier this year when my mom moved to a new place.

There is a meeting Tuesday about her care management plan. I guess I will find out more information then. When she first went to the rehab unit the doctor said she would be there about four weeks. If they stick to the original plan that would be two and a half more weeks.

I am trying to be positive about it. I still have a mom and she knows who I am and calls me when I’m not there. The hospital had her do a health care proxy. My dad said hopefully she would improve but would likely have some limitations. He also said I should find out if she has a will and a place she would like to be buried. I guess that sounds morbid, but my husband and I have planned all this for ourselves. I never really asked my mom about what she wanted after her passing.

We have been taking the kids to see her and talking with them about the situation. We explained that grandma is going to have a long recovery and may not be exactly the same person she was before. We have to enjoy the time we have with her since, like the rest of us, no one knows how much time we have left.

We have also been doing fun things. We went to the beach again yesterday. This time the weather was great and we were able to swim. Today we went to the pool and park. The kids rode their bikes.