4 February 2025
That's the question. Unfortunately for Joyce, every time she tries to do something with her left leg, some blood runs through the transparent tubing from her wound to the VAC. Not good.
We have a video call with Jennifer the RN at the Wound Care Center tomorrow afternoon. Binita will take the dressing off so Jennifer can get a look at the wound but Dr. Dimaano saw photos of the wound and didn't like what she saw. More slough, in short.
So late this afternoon Binita told us we'd go back to the wet-to-dry dressing we'd been using. That doesn't bother her.
Good thing too because I looked at the new Wound VAC from Apria they were going to send her off with. It was the same damn cast iron thing that caused us nothing but grief in the beginning. We would put the noisy pump under the bed under two pillows to get some sleep and eventually have to turn it off.
This change also implies she'll be staying at Golden Heights, which is no recommendation, let me hastily add. It's just that the two places I visited were so dismal. I asked myself this morning if I would even board a dog for two weeks at one of them. Uh, no.
Not that there isn't some other place she'd do better in. But if we get the Medi-Cal thing going (I've already submitted some documentation to the social worker) for under $4K/month it will give me longer than three days to find a better place.
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JOYCE AND I had a conference call with Dr. Khanna from the Memory Clinic today too. Dr. Khanna was under the impression she could call Joyce's cell and I would answer. I wasn't sure how she was getting in touch, so I went over earlier in the morning and waited with both phones ready.
She was concerned the Donepezil was discouraging her appetite. She has lost over 30 lbs. but she wasn't eating before she had the Donepezil. Still she wants to try Memantine and will check in six weeks to see if there's any improvement.
I asked her if there was anything we could do about her sense of imbalance. She said the most recent brain scans showed nothing abnormal. She asked Joyce about it. Joyce told her she was afraid of falling. Dr. Khanna put it down to fear. The more you do it, the less you'll be afraid, she said.
Well, no. That has not been the case.
I also asked her about the incontinence, particularly diarrhea. She had nothing to offer. And, frankly, it's hard to tell what's going on when she doesn't eat, doesn't have a bowel movement for a few days, they panic and give her a suppository and she's humiliated sitting in a mess.
But apparently there is no dementia treatment for it.
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AFTER LUNCH I take her to the gym and she tries to use the SciFit but it pains her leg and I see blood going up the tube. So we try the Spirit Cycle a while. Cassie said hello and I prompt Joyce to reply.
I ask the RNAs if they are up to getting her to walk since it's been days. Sure. So when I get her off the Spirit Cycle, they put her walker in the hall and get her two walk a few feet. She probably gets up five or six times but walks fewer and fewer steps, screaming all the time.
But she has enough strength to get back in bed and watch 'The Big Bang Theory.'