March 3rd, Mom finished up with her physical therapy sessions. She has made great progress both with her ability to walk and her shoulders. She was sent home with papers showing her exercises that she is to do at home. She is supposed to use 4 pound weights for her arms/shoulders, the red/yellow bands for the rest of her arm exercises and then she is also supposed to use weights to increase the strength in her legs. Mom has sufficient weights in all departments - the challenge is for Mom to use them.
March 4th we went to Dr. Iatredes and he took another X-ray and said that her lungs had almost entirely cleared up. He gave her a prescription that should relieve the week's worth of continuous diarrhea, v. itch and early thrush in the mouth that came from the antibiotic. Att: Mom seems to be very susceptible to yeast infections with antibiotics.
Dr. Iatredes also said that it could be that Mom is actually inhaling food particles. She has a Zenkers Diverticulum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenker) which catches particles of food and could be causing the inhalation of food particles. Anyhow, Dr. I says that if she has another bout of chest congestion that isn't caused by obvious factors (cold, bronchitis etc.), then we need to see a speech pathologist who will teach Mom to swallow more efficiently to minimize the adverse effects of a ZD. (I see I didn't mention this in my October posting... The result of the 3 tiered barium swallow was that Mom had the Zenker's Diverticulum. Somewhere in here she was also assessed by a speech pathologist but at this point I can't remember when. Dr. I has a report from the pathologist, however.)
We will be starting a regular regimen of exercise at LA Fitness starting next week. We will do Tuesday and Thursday like we did at Midtown before all this brouhaha started. We plan on doing water exercises and, if I have my way...a bit of weight lifting to augment her strength.
What's left? Mom still fatigues easily. I think, now that the bronchitis is over, time, beautiful weather, and exercise will remedy this situation. She also needs to improve her overall strength and that we can remedy with exercise at home and at the club.
March 9 - the yeast infections are over. I don't know about her mouth but the diarrhea and v. itch are gone.
