Peace!

It was a long time before I was able to make the decision to put Rick in a nursing home. My girls wanted me to several years ago, but I just wasn’t ready for it. It was the 1st weekend in June and Tamara and I, along with Rick and Mara, were going to FL for my nephew’s wedding. We were talking and Tamara asked me if I wasn’t ready to place him. All of a sudden I realized it was time. I was then ready for it to happen immediately. But it took 2 months. I have had some guilt feelings, wondering what others would think about me giving up on my care of Rick. But everyone has been so supportive.

I just had my care planning meeting with all the department heads of the nursing home this morning. They asked me about his likes and dislikes. They have put him on a mechanical soft diet, which I totally agree with. They are giving him physical, occupational and speech therapy. They are really working with him to help him improve. I was so impressed. He wasn’t getting that at my home. So now I know he is where he is supposed to be. I came away this morning with a light heart. I called Tamara and she said, “You sound excited Mom. I’m glad you feel that way.” She could hear it in my voice.

So I have now overcome any bad feelings I had about it in the first place. I am very comfortable leaving him there while I go on vacation. He is in very capable hands. As well as in God’s keeping.

I have a schedule of people to come visit Rick daily while I am gone. He won’t be left alone. Thank you everyone for your help. You are a blessing to both Rick and me.

Thank you, Jesus, for working all this out for your honor and glory. We are still trusting You for complete healing. He is going to walk out of the prison he is in, just like Peter, in the Bible, walked out of the prison he was in.

A Prayer For Caregivers

A PRAYER FOR CAREGIVERS
By Lois Crissinger

As you care for my loved one, I pray for you. I pray that you will have a heart of compassion and that you will be considerate of my loved one as a person with feelings, emotions and sensitivities.

I pray that your heart will be filled with kindness and that you might be reminded that this person’s situation could someday be yours or that of a loved one of yours.

May God grant you strength to do this task that can be difficult (and often thankless). I, for one, thank you for doing daily the task that I no longer had the strength to do alone.

Please remember that my loved one has worth and value to me, to many family members, friends and acquaintances, but most of all, to the God who created him.

May God watch over you and give you peace and guidance this day, in all you do.

AMEN

Second Week in Nursing Home

Rick is doing better in the nursing home now. He is eating good and apparently drinking good again. The swelling in his feet has gone down a lot now. Sunday, they couldn’t get his good loafers on, his feet were so swollen. He had to wear his sandals.

I think we have gotten his room to look pretty homey. I have washed clothes every day since he has been in there. It seems that they can’t keep him from wetting his pants. I have a meeting tomorrow with the planning group and hope that I can get some of that solved.

I’m leaving Saturday to go to Alaska with Rick’s sister and cousin. I’m really excited about that. I am trying to get Rick all taken care of before I leave. I have put together a schedule of people to go see him every day while I’m gone. Cheryl and another lady are going to take him to church on Sunday’s. I’m going to be gone 4 Sundays in a row. 3 with the Alaska trip and then Labor Day I’m going up to see Tamara in Pittsburgh. So that will be 4 Sundays.

The nurses and CNA’s at the nursing home are all very nice and trying hard to keep him taken care of. One of the nurses told me today that they love Rick. And she said I’m amazing. I guess they don’t have too many residents with family who looks out for their welfare. Anyway, that made me feel better. I’ve made a couple of sheet cakes to take to them tomorrow to show my appreciation for their efforts.

It just takes time to get adjusted to each other.

I thank God for being with Rick during this transition.

New Home For Rick

 
 
 
 
 
 

Rick moved into Heritage Healthcare of High Point Monday. This has been a stressful week for both of us. I am thankful to have had the help of Cheryl and Tamara with this transition. We have finally gotten his room to feel homey, but he is still getting used to a new place and new people. And they are getting used to him. It has been hard to go there to see him seem so lost. He hasn't seemed to recognize us. It could be due to the time of the day that we have been there. Evenings he is more tired and not as alert and that has been when we've been there.

This morning I was there shortly after 8 am. He was dressed and sitting in the dining room waiting for his breakfast. He was leaning over his knees which is pretty normal. I walked in and called his name and he raised up a little bit to look around. I took him by his hands and helped him stand up. Then he looked at me and smiled. I hugged and kissed him and he hugged me. He actually looked like he knew who I was and was glad to see me. I cried!

I really needed this. I was feeling so badly that he wasn't involved with the people and seemed to be so disoriented. Hopefully things are looking up.

This morning I spoke to the nurse and CNA that are caring for Rick in the mornings. They said they are having a hard time getting him to eat. He keeps his head down near the plate and resists when they try to push it back up. He isn't drinking much either. The nurse said that she gave him an ensure yesterday and he drank it all. That was good.

They say that he is incontinent. I guess that at night they don't get him up in time to get to the bathroom and he dribbles on the way there. The CNA said that she took him to the bathroom twice yesterday morning and he didn't do anything and then about 2pm she took him and he did a very little bit. I guess if he isn't eating and drinking he doesn't have anything to put out. Hopefully this will get better. I have asked for a monitor to go on his bed that will let the night shift know when he is trying to get up.

This has been a very hard transition. I pray that God will ease his confusion and cause the staff to love him.

Seizure-ish?

Rick did some really weird different things last night. I gave him the Depakote at 9:15 pm and we got in bed about 10:15 pm. I didn’t give him any melatonin at bedtime, just to see what the Depakote would do. He was up again at 1 pm at which time I gave him the melatonin, 2 tabs. Then at 2 am he hollered out – I’m not sure if it was a start or not. He didn’t wake up from his sleep. This happened again about 3:30 am. Then he woke up at 6:30. I took him to the bathroom and he was very halting in his walking, very jerky muscles. No starts as such but still seemed seizurish. I got him dressed and then we had breakfast at about 7 am. I got his Keppra and Depakote in right away. He had occasional starts from then until he got on the bus to go to the center.

This morning is his first morning dose of Depakote.

Hopeful answers

I decided to give Rick another Topamax 25 mg this morning so I could be comfortable with putting him on the bus to go to the Center.
Now I have received this reply from Valerie, Dr Boggs’ nurse:
I spoke w/Dr. Boggs and she feels that we may be on to something good with the Depakote and recommends increasing it to 500mg twice daily. She recommended that we could call in something to use as needed for those times when he has a cluster of "starts" that may work better than the Topamax. Topamax is not really designed to be used on as needed basis. She recommended that I call in Tranxene 3.75mg tablets that you can give him one tablet as needed on a day like you had Sat and Sun to settle down the activity. Hopefully it will settle down with an increase in the Depakote.
Now we will see how this works. I will start giving him the Depakote bid tomorrow morning.

Weekend issues - no doctor to talk to!

It seems that if anything is going to happen it happens on the weekend when I don’t have anyone to call.

Saturday we left the house about 11:30 or so and made a couple of stops. Then we went to Tamara’s house because we were going to go to lunch with them. While we were sitting there waiting to go, Rick started having some of his little ‘starts’. They just continued on and on in fairly rapid succession. I was afraid to have him even get up from the couch; much less take him out to a restaurant. I didn’t know what to do, but finally remembered that I still had a Topamax 25 mg in my purse, so I gave that to him. In about an hour he was slowing down and we went out to eat. He was better the rest of the day. That was about 12 noon to 1:30 pm.

Today, Sunday, we got up about 6:00 am. I gave him a shower and got him dressed for church. He sat in a chair while I showered and dressed. We ate breakfast at 8 am, which is when I usually give him his morning meds. We were ready to leave for church at 8:45 am. I got him in the car and he was beginning to have the ‘starts’ again. I decided I didn’t want to wait any longer, so I gave him another 25 mg of Topamax. We got to church and I was afraid to have him walk down the flight of stairs to our Sunday School class room, so drove around to the back which is a ground level entrance. He slowly calmed down during SS. He napped during that time and when it was over at 10:45 am, he was fine. He has been fine the rest of the day.

I need some help knowing what to do. I just used the Topamax because it is what I have on hand and I felt he needed something. I am worried about sending him to the center tomorrow.

Medication Change

Rick had his first dose of Depakote 500mg last night. His last dose of Topamax was yesterday morning. We didn’t get home last night until 10:15 so he didn’t get his Depakote until about 10:30 along with 2 melatonin. HE SLEPT ALL NIGHT!!! I had to wake him up this morning at 6:40 am. What a wonderful night’s sleep.

So I’m not sure if it was the Depakote or the fact that he walked around the church sanctuary for 1.5 hrs before we went home that helped him to sleep so good. But I don’t remember the last time he slept all night. I have felt it was great if he just woke up once in the night.

He did have one small start this morning. I hope that will stop soon. Is depakote cumulative?

From Valerie,RN, with Dr. Boggs, neurologist,
The Depakote will take about 5-7days to fully stabilize in his system but he may be a little groggy the first few days as he becomes accustomed to it--so you may see that he does sleep more soundly as a result.


From Lynn, RN, at TWADC at 1:42 pm
Rick has had a very good day thus far. (I hope I am not sending this prematurely) He has been active and smiling at everyone. He seemed rested and showed no stress in his face this morning. Many people made comments about it. Hopefully, the Depakote is the key. If I see any changes I will let you know. 
Thanks,
Lynn