The assembled members of the nursing and therapy council pronounced a stellar performance by Nancy at this point in her rehabilitation.
I think the thing that confounds just about all of us is that no one is quite sure of what Nancy is being rehabilitated from. People tend to view situations a little differently based on their own previous experiences. The views of the people we talked with today are influenced by the many patients they have cared for with injuries or strokes. Nancy has a combination of factors that have incapacitated her but injury (a shattered hip from a fall, say) and stroke are not among her problems.
I wish I knew more about the damage done to organs and cells in the few days in late November and early December but it seems to me that the body’s natural repair of these things was a slow process. During much of December this process was underway but complicated by the faulty heart. This resulted in many days of “down time” for Nancy during which her muscles went unused.
In the midst of all this was open heart surgery.
Nancy can extract herself from bed, stand and move into either a walker or a wheel chair, and move about. The seat of the wheel chair is lower to the floor than the bed so (today) it still required a helpful tug for her to achieve vertical status from the chair. Still all this seems to be progressing well and a little faster than some thought it would.
One issue all would like complete recover for is the inability to maintain bladder control. This function was compromised by the extended lack of use of the muscles and the use of a catheter. In recent weeks Nancy has not been able to get out of bed on her own nor to get on to or off of the potty. Help has not been timely, creating frequent unpleasantries for Nancy and the staff.
Following from Nancy’s increased mobility and ability to sit and stand from taller items, today a raised platform with arms was fitted over the low commode. This and an introduction to “Kegel exercises” should soon resolve the problem and everyone, especially Nancy, will soon give a shout of joy.
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If you care: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegel_exercise