Mom’s Knee

The care staff at mom’s community have been in increasing contact regarding mom’s knee.

This spring mom went on an outing to our regional tulip fields where she took a fall. Not bad, or with lingering effects, but it’s our state’s law that these things have to be reported to the family and the state.

More recently I received a phone call to suggest that we order more PT. I responded that I am a proponent of PT, however, mom checked herself out of the last round of PT against medical advice, and doesn’t have the ability to remember to follow the therapist’s instructions in between visits. Oh, and she doesn’t think anything is really wrong despite the discomfort and needing to walk with a cane. Lose-lose situation. They asked if I could take her to the doctor. I said we’d been recently, and had just gone though this. Start at the top of this paragraph…

The Care Director called me a few weeks ago to discuss mom’s new assessment. They’re charging her an additional point for using an assistive device (cane), and four points for being a fall risk. $123 more a month that I cannot argue with.

A week ago Tuesday, the Health Services Director called me to say that mom was found to be very shakey after an outing to the grocery store. The community’s Executive Director scooped her into a wheel chair, and took her to her apartment. She reported having fallen while at the grocery, though staff didn’t see her fall. She had a small wound on her hand that she couldn’t explain. Care staff took her vital’s, which were fine.

The PT company that (God bless them) makes house calls to mom’s community called me last week to discuss the idea of more PT for mom. I, again, told them I am a huge PT proponent, and we are working against rather a number of challenges. They are going to reach out to Dr. O, and work with care staff to see if they can gain consensus from mom. I am super dubious of gaining mom’s ongoing cooperation, but these folks have a way better chance of achieving our end goal if I’m not part of the planning, bossy daughter that I am 😉 !

This is a very difficult aspect of my mother’s illness. She has lost the ability to understand that PT can help her knee. Further, she can’t remember to follow the prescribed exercises the therapist gives her, and when the therapist comes to see her, she turns him away. But her knee is still painful, and she wants something done about it. I can find out if care staff can help her with exercises, but am fairly certain she’ll toss them out of her apartment. It’s the only option I can come up with, slim as it is. This is my mother’s ticket into a wheel chair.