September 29, 2017 10:20 pm
Yesterday morning Mary was told she had to choose: Josh could go either on the fishing trip on Thursday afternoon or on a tour of the Mile High Stadium on Friday morning. After discussing the options with Josh's therapists, Friday morning's tour was selected. In the 10 weeks we have been here, Josh hasn't gone on a single outing. Either he's been moved to Swedish, or the one time we were here, there wasn't enough room for him. Today followed the same pattern.
Because Josh wasn't acting well yesterday, Dr. Makley decided it was best if Josh didn't go on today's outing. Mary was upset ... REALLY upset. Josh was doing GREAT this morning, and the tour was only a few hours. AND this was Josh's last chance to do something fun here. Nonetheless, we were relegated to the hospital.
Since there was nothing to do all morning, Mary set up her computer for Josh and asked him to type her a letter. He typed:
Dear Mom,
Today I was denied going on the occupational therapy.
After he got that far, the nurse came in to give him his morning medications. Josh <ctrl A>ed the screen then hit delete so the nurse wouldn't see it. Mary's sadness increased when she realized that Josh, too, was disappointed to be stuck in the hospital again.
Because Josh didn't go on the outing, Craig staff added activities to his morning schedule. A fill-in OT (Deepa) met with Josh at 9:30 for a half hour. She did some standardized testing with him.
First she asked him to move blocks from one side of a box to the other. He moved 30 blocks with his right hand and 31 blocks with his left hand. The goal is 85 with his right hand and 84 with his left. In the past he hasn't been able to move one block at a time -- he grabs handfuls of blocks, which makes sense. If you have a job to do, get it done!!
Next she asked him to put 9 pegs in 9 holes, one at a time, and then remove them from the holes one at a time. He completed the task in 35 seconds with his right hand and in 40 seconds with his left. The goal is to do it in 16-17 seconds.
Lastly she asked him to identifying objects by touch. She blindfolded Josh and put an object in his hand. She then took the object out of his hand and added it to a line of objects. He had to choose which object was in his hand. He did that perfectly with both hands, but he has done that perfectly since his first attempt a couple of days after he arrived at Craig Hospital.
Then we went to Neuropsychology. Dr. Schraa mumbled a bunch of stuff that neither Josh nor Mary understood, then Mary said, "I asked Josh to type on the computer this morning, and he did really well!" So Schraa put a laptop in front of Josh and said, "Type something. Anything." That scope is WAY too big for Josh to comprehend, so he typed several incomplete sentences, repeating the words "special" and "books" a number of times. Mary said, "Do you remember grandpa? Type something you remember about grandpa." He typed: "GRANDPA IS A BETTER PERSON THAN ME." He hit 'enter' a few times and typed: "Frandpa is a better person then me." As soon as the period at the end of the sentence was typed, Josh was asleep in his wheelchair with his hands on the keyboard. So that was the end of that session. Mary took him back to his room for a nap.
After a nap, we had lunch then Josh met with Speech. He had a new pathologist today, Laura. After the standard Friday o-log (10 questions), Josh fell asleep. That was only 12 minutes into class. Mary took him back to his room and put him to bed. He slept for two hours, missing his bike class.
After lunch Josh went to PT. He stood on a piece of foam (to improve his balance) and Mary and Josh bounce-passed a ball to each other. Every time Josh passed the ball to Mary, the therapist would say a word and he would have to say the opposite. Most opposites weren't easy, but he had significant trouble with the opposites of "skinny" and "up," and even after a ton of clues and giving him the first two letters, he never did get the opposite of "black."
Next, he worked on a special machine called the Makoto. The machine emits a sound and flashes a light, and the player has to turn quickly (sometimes in circles) and hit the lighted button. It's easier to include the video below than try to describe it in words. Josh has played this game twice before, but with only one tower. This time he played using all three towers. (If the therapist had been Barb, his usual therapist, she never would have allowed it. She is ultra, crazy conservative when it comes to patient safety.)
The first time Josh played Makoto tonight, she activated only on the red tower. He scored 28/28, meaning that of the 28 buttons he punched, he got them all correct. (He always got a perfect score, BTW.) After the first try, he realized it is a timed game. He had one minute to hit as many buttons as he could, so in the video below he is going as fast as he can. He scored 16/16.
We wish we had this game at home. We think it's good for Josh.
After PT, Josh had ST. He met with Laura again and identified items in a room. He did okay. That was his last class today.
At about 4:30 Paul, who had been at the hospital since lunchtime but tied up in work-related calls, took over and Mary headed home for a break. Josh and Paul had dinner at the hospital. It took Josh about two hours to eat his. After dinner Paul set up Mary's iPad so that Josh could play with some puzzles, which is something that he really enjoys doing. But after a few minutes, Paul noticed that Josh had switched games and was playing some word games that Mary purchased. Paul was amazed to see how Josh's skill had improved since the last time he played these games, just a couple of weeks ago. Josh was especially good a game where he has to look at a picture of an object and name it without any clues. His aphasia usually makes this impossible, but tonight Josh was getting one after the other. He probably got 95% correct. After a while he tired, but it was impressive.
Two days ago Mary requested that the hospital discontinue as many medications as possible. They "DCed" his blood pressure medication thinking that it might be one of many reasons Josh is so tired during the day. Tonight they DCed his sleep medications (he takes a lot). Josh sleeps deeply, so when they turn Josh through the night, he never wakes up. They want him to sleep less deeply in hopes that he can control his continence through the night. (Sadly,, Mary doesn't see that happening any time soon since he can't control it through the day.)
All in all, although it was disappointing that Josh couldn't go to the stadium tour, it was one of Josh's better days. He was more alert and connected to the outside world, and he did a good job of interacting with people who spoke to him.
Yesterday morning Mary was told she had to choose: Josh could go either on the fishing trip on Thursday afternoon or on a tour of the Mile High Stadium on Friday morning. After discussing the options with Josh's therapists, Friday morning's tour was selected. In the 10 weeks we have been here, Josh hasn't gone on a single outing. Either he's been moved to Swedish, or the one time we were here, there wasn't enough room for him. Today followed the same pattern.
Because Josh wasn't acting well yesterday, Dr. Makley decided it was best if Josh didn't go on today's outing. Mary was upset ... REALLY upset. Josh was doing GREAT this morning, and the tour was only a few hours. AND this was Josh's last chance to do something fun here. Nonetheless, we were relegated to the hospital.
Since there was nothing to do all morning, Mary set up her computer for Josh and asked him to type her a letter. He typed:
Dear Mom,
Today I was denied going on the occupational therapy.
After he got that far, the nurse came in to give him his morning medications. Josh <ctrl A>ed the screen then hit delete so the nurse wouldn't see it. Mary's sadness increased when she realized that Josh, too, was disappointed to be stuck in the hospital again.
Because Josh didn't go on the outing, Craig staff added activities to his morning schedule. A fill-in OT (Deepa) met with Josh at 9:30 for a half hour. She did some standardized testing with him.
First she asked him to move blocks from one side of a box to the other. He moved 30 blocks with his right hand and 31 blocks with his left hand. The goal is 85 with his right hand and 84 with his left. In the past he hasn't been able to move one block at a time -- he grabs handfuls of blocks, which makes sense. If you have a job to do, get it done!!
Next she asked him to put 9 pegs in 9 holes, one at a time, and then remove them from the holes one at a time. He completed the task in 35 seconds with his right hand and in 40 seconds with his left. The goal is to do it in 16-17 seconds.
Lastly she asked him to identifying objects by touch. She blindfolded Josh and put an object in his hand. She then took the object out of his hand and added it to a line of objects. He had to choose which object was in his hand. He did that perfectly with both hands, but he has done that perfectly since his first attempt a couple of days after he arrived at Craig Hospital.
Then we went to Neuropsychology. Dr. Schraa mumbled a bunch of stuff that neither Josh nor Mary understood, then Mary said, "I asked Josh to type on the computer this morning, and he did really well!" So Schraa put a laptop in front of Josh and said, "Type something. Anything." That scope is WAY too big for Josh to comprehend, so he typed several incomplete sentences, repeating the words "special" and "books" a number of times. Mary said, "Do you remember grandpa? Type something you remember about grandpa." He typed: "GRANDPA IS A BETTER PERSON THAN ME." He hit 'enter' a few times and typed: "Frandpa is a better person then me." As soon as the period at the end of the sentence was typed, Josh was asleep in his wheelchair with his hands on the keyboard. So that was the end of that session. Mary took him back to his room for a nap.
After a nap, we had lunch then Josh met with Speech. He had a new pathologist today, Laura. After the standard Friday o-log (10 questions), Josh fell asleep. That was only 12 minutes into class. Mary took him back to his room and put him to bed. He slept for two hours, missing his bike class.
After lunch Josh went to PT. He stood on a piece of foam (to improve his balance) and Mary and Josh bounce-passed a ball to each other. Every time Josh passed the ball to Mary, the therapist would say a word and he would have to say the opposite. Most opposites weren't easy, but he had significant trouble with the opposites of "skinny" and "up," and even after a ton of clues and giving him the first two letters, he never did get the opposite of "black."
Next, he worked on a special machine called the Makoto. The machine emits a sound and flashes a light, and the player has to turn quickly (sometimes in circles) and hit the lighted button. It's easier to include the video below than try to describe it in words. Josh has played this game twice before, but with only one tower. This time he played using all three towers. (If the therapist had been Barb, his usual therapist, she never would have allowed it. She is ultra, crazy conservative when it comes to patient safety.)
The first time Josh played Makoto tonight, she activated only on the red tower. He scored 28/28, meaning that of the 28 buttons he punched, he got them all correct. (He always got a perfect score, BTW.) After the first try, he realized it is a timed game. He had one minute to hit as many buttons as he could, so in the video below he is going as fast as he can. He scored 16/16.
We wish we had this game at home. We think it's good for Josh.
After PT, Josh had ST. He met with Laura again and identified items in a room. He did okay. That was his last class today.
At about 4:30 Paul, who had been at the hospital since lunchtime but tied up in work-related calls, took over and Mary headed home for a break. Josh and Paul had dinner at the hospital. It took Josh about two hours to eat his. After dinner Paul set up Mary's iPad so that Josh could play with some puzzles, which is something that he really enjoys doing. But after a few minutes, Paul noticed that Josh had switched games and was playing some word games that Mary purchased. Paul was amazed to see how Josh's skill had improved since the last time he played these games, just a couple of weeks ago. Josh was especially good a game where he has to look at a picture of an object and name it without any clues. His aphasia usually makes this impossible, but tonight Josh was getting one after the other. He probably got 95% correct. After a while he tired, but it was impressive.
Two days ago Mary requested that the hospital discontinue as many medications as possible. They "DCed" his blood pressure medication thinking that it might be one of many reasons Josh is so tired during the day. Tonight they DCed his sleep medications (he takes a lot). Josh sleeps deeply, so when they turn Josh through the night, he never wakes up. They want him to sleep less deeply in hopes that he can control his continence through the night. (Sadly,, Mary doesn't see that happening any time soon since he can't control it through the day.)
All in all, although it was disappointing that Josh couldn't go to the stadium tour, it was one of Josh's better days. He was more alert and connected to the outside world, and he did a good job of interacting with people who spoke to him.
I'm so much looking forward to Josh's return home. Maybe one of the reasons he falls to sleep so often is that he is bored. They (Craig) ha a lot of cool games that are important, but he'll be delighted when he gets home and sees things for the first time that are familiar. Becca plans to be with you when Josh gets home. She sort of invited me to go with her, but too much is too much and I fear a crowd when he first gets home will be too much for him.....and for you. Mom
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