Happy Foggy Thursday everyone!  Wow, when I let the dogs out could hardly see out there.

 

Well, Wednesday was definitely a mixed bag of tricks.  Began the morning walking in to find that Mom's upper denture was missing.  Chastity (aide) said they were not in the cup when she went to put them in for her to eat breakfast.  The bed looked so crisp I thought that they had already changed the linen.  I felt around quickly on top of the covers and even crawled under the bed on my belly (thank heavens I had dark clothes on) looking for the dentures.  Now don't you wish you had a picture of that???  I immediately reported them missing to the nurses and asked her little aide to please call the galley tray people and laundry immediately.  Anyway, when Chastity came in to check on Mom and I asked if she had changed the linen this morning and she said no as she was just coming to bath her now. So she and I immediately checked the bed and BINGO, found the denture between the mattress and the bedrail.  Praise God!

 

Ashley, Physical Therapy and aide came to work with Mom.  She would not cooperate and they finally put her in her chair and said they would try again in the afternoon.  She ate very little breakfast or lunch, mostly the sweets were her food of choice for the day.  I asked the aide in the afternoon to put her back to bed and she told me that my mom had tried to get out of bed 15 times after I left last night within 1 hr and that she left at 8pm.  I didn't leave that night till 7:10 to 7:15, so that would mean she was Houdini in 45 minutes.  She told me that the nurses were having a meeting now to decide how they were going to handle her and that she could not put her to bed until they told her.  Dumb me, I bought this hook, line and sinker. 

 

My high school chum, Nila Means May came to spend the evening with us bring mom a beautiful piece of cake and me a wonderful smoothie from the coffee bar.  Nila was so great with my Mom, she fed her cake and they conversed the whole evening.  She had Mom laughing and it was a great evening.  Thank you Nila so much!  We both love you.  Jack and Wilma came to see Mom and, as always Jack became the center of Mom's attention but he ended up having to share the limelight with Nila.  I happened to see Mary Jo Farrell and old friend and nurse that used to work at the VA go by the room and went out to the desk and found out that she works 3 nights a week on the unit.  I asked her if they had decided when Mom could go to bed and she told me whenever my Mom wanted and I then told her what the aide had said.She said this was not true and wanted to know which girl told me that.  She said the girl is a wannabe nurse who is an aide and Mary Jo immediately dispatched the aides to put her to bed.  Mom had no problem going to bed on the other side of the hospital but every night in UTCC, it seems to be a major chore.  They tried using the Steady (I'm probably spelling that wrong.  Mom is so afraid of falling again that she fights them and it took 3 off them "Jones ing her" which I found out is just bodily picking her up and putting her to bed while she is fighting, screaming and yes, even cursing them.  She was so upset.  Bless Nila's heart, she had prayer with Mom and she settled down.  I asked Mary Jo if they could not give her the Lexapro and Lorazapam after dinner so that she is more mellow when she goes to bed.  She checked and found they had not given her any meds all day except the appetite pill.  I knew they had given her pills but did not realize what they were, so I guess I will have to start questioning more.  Poor Mom was just worn out from being up all day in that chair.  She was asleep with Nila, Jack, Wilma and I left at 8pm.  I got home and Mary Jo, RN called me at 8:45 telling me that Mom refused to take her pills and what did I want her to do.  I told her my trick of crushing the pills and putting them in strawberry ice cream.  I asked her if I needed to come back out and she said she would try the ice cream trick and if it didn't work she would call me back.  I was so exhausted because I had been at the hospital since 8:30 a.m. because I had a 9 am meeting with the Social worker about Medicare payment, etc.  I called back at 9:30pm and Mary Jo said she took the pills for her in the ice cream and was now quiet.  Thank God, as I immediately went to bed.

 

Yesterday afternoon, I had my first appointment with Dr. Dev, Pulmonologist and Sleep Study doc in Bridgeport.  His wife works at the VA.  He is scheduled me May 30 for a sleep study and showed me the little machine that is supposed to be the miracle worker.  He looked in my mouth and told me that he is positive I'm going to need it because I still have my tonsils and he was amazed how large they will are considering my age (ah yes, old again rears its ugly head again).  He also said that my mouth is built extremely small which I have been told by 2 dentists previously.  He explained the whole sleep process to me and explained why i am always so tired when I wake up.  I was very, very impressed with him and signed paperwork to have my pulmonary

follow up appointments with him instead of having to travel all the way to Morgantown (WVU).

 

Well, I hope I haven't bored you much.  vada