Rehab, Take 2

Hospital discharged her on Saturday.  She didn't get the rehab place she wanted, but was pretty happy to be back in the one she was in before.  She gave the floor nurse a big hug when she arrived.  

That said, the beginnings of the slow fade that started in the hospital on her last day seem to have bloomed full force again.  While she was eating everything in sight at the hospital, after a day in rehab, she's back to the hard-boiled eggs and applesauce refrain.  "I can't eat that - I'm allergic"...  six words that make me want to scream.  She actually turned down eggs this morning, which is a bad sign.  At lunchtime, she relented and ate the scrambled eggs they brought her after she turned her nose up at lunch.  She's having a difficult day.

John and Mary are with her today, our priest will be visiting later, and I will show up in time for dinner, armed with back-up soup.  She has more visitors than anyone in rehab, save her roommate, whose husband never seems to leave.

My fears: that she will keep pushing off on that foot to adjust herself in bed and the thing will just keep bleeding and never heal up; that she will refuse to eat and end up losing too much weight and not get the nutrition she needs to heal; that we will have to reconsider hospice because she won't cooperate in her own care.  

John and Mary are a god-send.  I can get some work done and have a little break from having to babysit her for hours on end because she says if I leave, I'm "abandoning" her.  This is a new one from the hospital and apparently has carried over to rehab.  For someone whose mind isn't what it used to be, she can be a master manipulator.  I have to stand firm in leaving when I need to leave.  I have a life too. 

 

UPDATE:  Mom is alone in her room again.  Her roommate had an intestinal blockage and died after being taken to the hospital.  This has had an odd effect on Mom - she's eating again.  She's kind of picky, but if it's cut up small enough, she eats.  Exceptions are hamburgers, turkey sandwiches - pretty much anything that comes on bread, though she's eaten a few dinner rolls.  A meatball sandwich was inedible until I removed the bun and cut up the meatballs.  Then she tucked right in.  Mary and I have been bringing her occasional food, but she really needs to eat whatever they feed her.  We've taken to looking at the posted menus on the wall in the hallway to see what she won't eat.  Sunday's meals are all good, but Monday night's supper will be a definite no for Mom.  John and Mary leave on Sunday.  Andy arrives on Monday.

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