Sunday, July 20, 2008
Visiting Distraction
Movement for 7/19/08:
- Walked under her own steam to the bathroom for bathing. Voiced a preference for doing the same to the dinette but decided, once she emerged from the bathroom and saw the chair laying in wait (with which I follow her when she walks or walkers, in case she can't make it to her destination completely on foot) to be wheeled.
- After a long, wonderful visit at the dinette table, during which we had pizza for breakfast (which delighted my mother) and during which she didn't stand up or move for almost four hours (a long time for her to go without movement if she's not sleeping), she decided she wanted to walk from the dinette into the bathroom under her own steam. She made it about halfway. She was determined to continue but she was practically crawling along, using the counters for purchase. I ordered her to sit, which she did, and wheeled her the rest of the way. I noticed that the stiffness that had developed while she'd sat at the dinette table was undermining her transfers, as well; she almost missed the toilet when transferring from the wheel chair. Thus, I directed her to the wheel chair, more or less moving her from the toilet to the chair, after bathrooming and told her she was going to "ride, Sally, ride" to the bedroom for her nap. By that time she seemed to have worked out some of the stiffness and transferred very well, thank you, from the chair to the bed. We had such a good visit at the table that it never occurred to any of us to head outside, today.
- Mom walked under her own steam from the bedroom to the bathroom after her nap. She was, though, fairly iffy on her feet. I decided not to give her a choice into the living room. I even wheeled her down the ramp. She obviously spent the evening completely relaxing after the last of company for awhile. By the time she decided to head for bed, it was obvious, from the way she raised herself just before I rubbed down her legs so I could pull down her slacks, that her body was not interested in marshaling any energy on behalf of movement. Once again, without giving her a choice I set the wheel chair to her side and she didn't argue. She took the foyer steps, though, and all her transfers this evening were fairly good.
# posted by Gail Rae @ 01:19 email...
...this post
...this post 