My mom seems to be doing well in her stroke rehab. She is walking, a little, with help.
And the facility sometimes has therapy dogs come in. Mom doesn’t have a lot of stamina, but she was telling me a couple of days ago that when she needed a break during her therapy, they’d have her lie down and a therapy dog would snuggle up to her. They’d have her scratch the dog with her (affected) left hand.
Awww, Fang.
Dragonmom, hope your friends are ok. And your DH, RMH.
I’m laying in bed at the hotel. The first visitation for my mom is over. My good friends from my town 4 hours away showed up, which was so touching. Tons of people were there tonight. Tomorrow is another visitation, the service and then lunch. As nice as its been I can’t wait to be in my jammies tomorrow night with all of this over.
Sending thoughts of solace and strength to you, eyemamom.
Thinking of you, eyeamom. As much as there is a purpose to the gathering of loved ones, it is urderstandable that you are ready to be through this part. Take good care.
Take care, eyemamom.
Hugs, eyemamom.
Thinking or you today eyemamom, take comfort from those around you.
Therapy dogs are so terrific! I saw a local spot where a woman was brushing the large therapy dog using her affected hand.
When I age and have limits in movement, I am going to get a very small happy dog. Great happy vibes.
There was a therapy dog in the waiting room where my mother had radiation treatments. What joy this animal brought to a roomful of anxious people. Later learned that the dog was near retirement and had traveled the country to help those in times of crisis, including after the Newtown Ct. shootings. Grateful to the owner, who was also a trained professional.
There are therapy dogs at the hospice. Just such great personalities. And yes, their owners are great, too, understanding that everyone gets a benefit from a moment. I hadn’t heard of using the dogs for hand therapy. Makes me smile. (See, it even works from a distance.)
I’m guessing that the dogs are not so much for hand therapy as for general good feelings, and the therapist is alertly having Mom exercise her left hand as she pets the dog. I was surprised that Mom had such a positive reaction to the dog. She’s not a dog person, in general. But I assume therapy dogs are particularly well trained to be lovable and accessible to people undergoing therapy. Anyway, seems like the therapy dog program is working at Kessler.
Thinking of you with thoughts of grace and comfort Eyeamom. Hoping that you are soaking up the love that everyone is bringing with them to the services.
Sending positive thoughts to your friends Dragonmom. Also, positive thoughts to eyemamom for strength today and after. Looking forward with you to the jammies.
@eyemamom hoping the service was healing and the estate is easy to close.
dragonmom, hard to watch ONE friend through times like these, but when it feels like an epidemic, it is scary and draining. Sending you some CA sunshine (yes, it is sunny right now, so clear and green after the rain).
We continue with my mom. I was afraid hospice was going to kick her off. Realistically , I knew she wasn’t exactly ready for hospice, even though the hospital said she was going to die in a week( 180 days ago) . She just got dehydrated and UTI got her terribly confused; too confused to swallow. To repeat myself, I got hospice so the AL place would NOT drag her to the hospital to be tested and poked and prodded. I also got a private care giver to go in at meal time and get her to meals and make sure she drank at those meals. Hospice came to visit and shower her and provided me a lot of peace of mind. Mom fell, broke her arm, but it healed up and she got stronger with the attention, so the new hospice RN said she might not qualify. Mom has so much energy now she is getting into mischief…disconnected all the cables from the TV … pops out into the hall and goes to other people’s rooms. The hospice RN wanted me to move her to Memory care (might be OK because Mom is social and she couldn’t leave, but also not OK because people there are very needy AND they don’t have quite enough help, plus the help and the rent is $$$ more). But Mom pulled a few more strange things (went into the hall nude, tipped her recliner over because she can’t figure out how to lower the foot rest, so crawled out onto the end) and has been having a lot more diarrhea accidents, so hospice will requalify her. Whew. I don’t want to move her because that seems to set confused elders back a bunch. If we had to move her, I’d rather move her closer to family, although that is also a challenge of a different sort.
The dichotomy is that waiting for another shoe to drop is wearing on everyone to the point I wish it would happen already BUT if something changes, it will most likely be a bad / sad thing. I wish it would happen but I don’t want it to come.
Isn’t the hospice thing weird, MIL is on hospice and we have no idea how she qualifies, but it is a nice thing & really, iits smart, as Medicare would be paying for all those poking prodding ER visits if she is sent.
I think it is weird about “losing it” that when you are yourself, you are 100% yourself, even if it’s only briefly, then a few seconds later you cannot process and remember anything. It’s bizarre and sad. The six weeks of constant interaction with MIL & FIL, it was educational.
I would love to bring MIL closer to us, too, but I don’t feel right separating FIL & MIL geographically and I am NOT inviting him to move closer
@somemom several doctors have to evaluate that a person qualifies for hospice (within 6 months of dying). Very rarely does someone ‘graduate’ out of hospice care, where they live on and on, and then go off of hospice.
Yah, no one in the family sees her as terminal, but we are grateful for Hospice, both to avoid wheelchair transport and the exhaustion of doctor appointments and ER visits and the extra set of eyes at her Board and Care home
David Bowie’s palliative care doctor wrote him a letter thanking him for his approach to late in life care. I don’t know how to link, but it is worth a read. I think David Bowie’s son made it public.