I know it has been a little bit since my last update on Mom, but things have gotten even more complicated. Dad has been experiencing shortness of breath and some chest pain for about 2 weeks now. He never mentioned a word of this to me until just this past Monday when I went over to get the car to go in to feed Mom and then all of a sudden he is like: "Here are the keys for the lock boxes with all the insurance policy information. Your Mom has 2 through ______(fill in the blank) company, 1 of them comes to term at age 93 and... then mine is through _______ (fill in the blank) company." I was like, "why are you telling me this now? Is there something wrong?" He finally told me what has been going on and that he sees the Dr. Friday, tomorrow. If *ANYTHING* happens to Dad, I have NO CLUE what would happen. He is 79 and has already had a stint placed in 1 of the arteries going to the heart 10 yrs ago and seems that he may have to have that done again, at the minimum.
At that point, I told him that he is NOT allowed to go in and feed Mom at all this week and he is just to stay home and rest. I always go in on the weekends for lunch and dinner, so Dad can have the weekends to totally rest. However, I have been going in to Mom's at lunch and dinner non-stop for the past 2 weeks and then over to Dad's to do things around the house for him.
Mom is doing better, but has been suffering from severe diarrhea for the past 3 weeks and they just can not seem to get it under control, so she has now lost a total of 60lbs since this all began. They have her on pureed foods, baby food, and I take a couple of spoonfuls of everything, place it into a cup, add sugar or Mrs. Dash's to give it some taste, and she is now feeding herself. I also snuck her in a Big Mac,because I was so worried that she was not getting enough protein and even without her dentures and removing the top bun, she ate 95% of that burger
Yesterday I talked with the Speech Therapist and the head of Dietary and on Monday everyone is going to see how she does with eating this Big Mac and if she does okay, which she will, then we can start moving her towards a more normal diet. Tonight was a *huge* step for her at dinner time !! They got her into a wheelchair and took her down to the dining hall where she could feed herself, get out of the bed she has been basically living in, help relieve her back pain, and get a chance for her to talk with other patients. If she can continue to do this, it would help her development of muscle tone immensely, further develop her hand eye coordination and hopefully get her to understand that in order for her to get a "day pass" to come home for Christmas she has to be able to stand and transfer with help, from the car to a wheelchair.
The only problem *I* am running into as Mom improves, is her calling me at 3am, 6am, 9pm, 11pm etc because she wants me to come down and "fix her TV" (change the TV station because you can only channel up and cycle through), "come turn me over", etc. So I am really starting to get rundown from lack of sleep and not eating. If Mom continues to go down to the dining hall, then the amount of time that I or my Dad have to go in to make sure she is eating enough will be cut down quite a bit.
I just ask for prayers regarding my Dad's health and continuation of prayers for my Mom's progress
and
Lyn
