Mom's new toy!

Mom on her electric chair taken last summer  

As everyone knows, mom has an electric wheelchair that she uses when we go anywhere that requires a lot of walking.  If it's a short little jaunt, she'll use her walker, but for the most part she would use the chair. 

Mom outside of the restaurant displaying her new toy.

Well, she and dad have been looking at getting her a scooter because she doesn't really like using the chair, and dad wanted one that would break down and fit into the trunk of the car.  Especially,  if it rains, we couldn't take the chair, since it was on the ramp on the back of the car and would get water splashed up from underneath and harm the motor of the chair.

So, we all searched, talked to people who have them, talked to people who sell them, do we get a three wheeler or a four wheeler, what type of scooter, what manufacturer, etc.  And finally she got one last Friday.

Paul and I went to a mobility store here in town, and bought her one as a surprise.  And boy was she and dad were really surprised when we pulled up with it in our trunk.  This scooter is so lightweight but is strong enough to carry up to 300 lbs.  It breaks down into four pieces, the heaviest piece is 29 lbs. so it is really easy for someone to put it in the trunk.

Here are pictures of her new toy.  She can also use it in the house if she wants.

Rear view - since this picture, Paul made a basket to hold her oxygen tank.

Here it is in the trunk of the car. The big portion actually breaks down into 3 pieces.

We all went to the casino last night for crab legs, celebrating Karl's birthday, and mom got to use her scooter while we were there.  She scooted around the casino easier than she ever did with her chair. I'm telling you, you should have seen the smile on her face when she was scooting around on this thing.  Priceless! (as a side note... no one got their toes run over last night, yahoo!)

Latest update on mom...

Last Thursday, 2/24 was mom's last day of physical therapy. The physical therapist was coming out 2 times a week to help mom with exercises to improve her mobility and breathing. Since she has improved so much, the therapist doesn't feel mom needs a therapist anymore.  That is good news!

After mom was released, the doctor assigned her a nurse to come out 3 times a week while mom was recuperating at home from pneumonia.  Now that mom has improved so much, the nurse is only coming out 1 time a week, just to make certain that mom is still improving and doing her breathing treatments. 

Since having the therapist and a nurse come to the house, mom has really improved and is actually doing better than she was prior to getting pneumonia.  I wouldn't recommend getting sick, but I think having these medical people helping her at home, has done her a world of good.

Mom enjoying fish fry last Friday.

Mom latest update - Monday

Good news, mom was released from the hospital and is now at home recovering. She looks so much better.  For a while, she will have home care nurses and therapists come to check on her until she is fully recuperated, but I know that she is glad to be home and so is dad.  Even Perla (her dog) was glad to see her.  Tamie says that Perla sat in mom's lap for a very long time (which she doesn't normally do). I went over to their house last night after work, and Tamie and I made sure that she and dad were fed and comfortable before we went home. Mom seems to be doing a lot better than she was, although she is still weak and tired, but at least we're sure that she is getting over her pneumonia this time.

Superbowl Sunday

What can I say, although we didn't win any of the pools Paul and I got in on, and didn't win the pool I got in at mom and dad's house, I still feel like a winner because the Green Bay Packers WON!  Yahoo!

Superbowl was celebrated at mom and dad's (sans mom).  There was so much food, I probably gained 5 pounds in the first half hour I was there.  We had several types of chips, 4 types of dips, shrimp, and that was before the main food.  Then when the game started, we all piled into the kitchen to get spagetti, chili, macaroni, meatballs, and more chips and dips. 

There were nine of us there, and 3 of them were traitors, hee hee.  They were rooting for the Steelers, humphf!  It was a great time, with the friendly bantering of rivalry that was going on.

Here's a picture of Jairo, Brittany, Tiffany and Daniel on the couch.  Can you tell who was for the Packers and who was for the Steelers? The third "traitor" was Karl's girlfriend, Nicole. :-)

Jairo, Brittany, Tiffany and Daniel

Days 4 through 6

Mom was transferred out of ICU on Saturday, finally, and put into a regular room.  That was encouraging at least.  Then on Saturday evening, she was moved again to a "suite".  We were all shocked when we heard that they had moved her again, but the room is so totally awesome. We found out that the doctor who is taking care of her is the one who got her transferred to this new room. I guess he figured that because there was always so many of us in that little room, we needed a larger room.  

The doctor came in and talked to us on Saturday, and said that mom is doing really well and is improving each day. Right now, he said, they are tackling her pneumonia and she is responding to the medications and breathing treatments remarkably well.  The doctor also called on Sunday and said that he thinks she may be able to leave the hospital in the next day or two.  Of course, why would she?  She has this awesome room at the hospital, with meals delivered, laptop next to her bed, TV, clean sheets, etc., hee hee. 

Here are some pictures of her room. That's Paul sitting on the couch watching the second TV and behind him is a refrigerator. We also brought in Tamie's laptop so that mom can keep up to date with her emails and facebook.  Her face just lit up when we got the laptop up and running. Boy has she become spoiled. :-)

Day Three...

Took off work a little early yesterday so that I could stop by the hospital and see mom before they closed visiting hours between 6:30 - 8:30 pm.  She looked really good.  She had just finished dinner and was drinking coffee and watching the news.  While I was there, Tiffany stopped by, so we kept mom entertained till 6:30pm.  She wasn't wearing the full face mask while we were there, but the nurse had said that she was supposed to wear it when she was ready to go to sleep.  Mom looked really tired by the time Tiffany and I left, but that was probably b/c mom was doing a lot of talking.

I talked to Tamie this morning, and she and dad are at the hospital now.  Mom said that she told the nurses that she did not want to wear the face mask, so they didn't make her wear it. Hmmm...

 Tamie said she has a call into mom's heart doctor and lung doctor to find out what they think mom's stay in the hospital will be, medically how is she doing, has her carbon dioxide levels gone down, has the fluid in her lungs lessened, what do they see going forward, etc.  Tamie did say that the heart doctor doesn't see any need for mom to stay in ICU, but has to wait to see what the lung doctor thinks. 

It's unfortunate that Tamie is still unemployed, however, I am so glad she is, b/c she is able to take dad back and forth to see mom during the day, and to make sure that someone is there when/if the doctor comes by.

We have been having some pretty severe cold weather here.  Now before you say anything, I know that it is not as bad as north east section of United States, however, we aren't used to that kind of weather here.  Paul and I had a beautiful 30' Ficus tree in our front yard.  Just put it in 2 years ago and it was just starting to bush out.  No one told us that a ficus tree cannot survive extreme cold weather.  Needless to say, tree is dead now. But that's OK, we are getting a pine tree planted in the same spot as the dead ficus tree. 

Mom update

Tamie called around noon today and said that mom was sitting up and eating lunch, she isn't wearing the full face mask right now, just the normal nose plugs she always has worn.  The doctors are still concerned about the fluid in her lungs, and she still gets dizzy and her oxygen levels dips low when she moves, but all in all she's doing much better.  No idea when she will get out of ICU or if they will move her to a regular room.

We admitted mom into ICU this morning with Respiratory Failure

Mom was having a hard time breathing the last 3 days and last night she finally told dad that she could hardly breathe at all,  dad called me to come and take her to the hospital. She's in ICU right now with a full face breathing mask on which she hates (I don't blame her, I hate mine which I have to wear at night). She's looking a whole lot better now then she did earlier this AM (4:00 AM). I'll write more as we get more information.

 Meanwhile, on a good note... here is a picture of my niece, Tiffany, with a update belly photo.  We take a belly photo once a month to see the progress as it happens.