So I was told today that my mother is now on a special diet -- which she should have been on for the past week. And Spaulding Rehab did not have the presence of mind to put her on it! PLUS, she had been given orange juice a couple of times by me and my sister, I had brought her special English caramels, my bro brought her a banana...the rehab had given her mashed potatoes and coffee every single day. Un-effing-believable. Was anyone going to say, ever: SPECIAL diet?!?
ACCEPTABLE: alfalfa, apples, bean sprouts, berries, breads, cabbage, cake, carrots, cauliflower, corn (fresh), iron-fortified cereal, cherries, cranberries, cream of wheat, cucumber, eggplant, green and wax beans, hard candy, honey, kidney and lima beans, margarine, mayonnaise, non-cola sodas, non-dairy milk substitute, noodles, oatmeal, oils, onion, peaches, pears, peppers, pineapple, plums, puffed rice cereal, rice, sherbet, snow peas, sugar, syrup, tangerines, tea (in moderation), unprocessed meats, watercress, yellow squash, and zucchini.
NOT ACCEPTABLE: apricots, artichokes, asparagus, avocado, bacon, bagels, bananas, barbecue sauce, barley, beer, beet greens, bologna, boullion, bran, bratwurst, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, buns, canned fish, canned fruit, canned vegetables, cantaloupe, caramels, cheese, Chinese food, chips, chocolate, coconut, coffee, cola drinks, collard greens, corned beef, cottage cheese, dates, deli meats, dried beans, dried fruits, dried lentils, English muffins, figs, ham, hash browns, honeydew melon, hot dogs, ice cream, ketchup, kiwis, liver, liverwurst, milk, mushrooms, mustard, mustard greens, nectarines, nuts, olives, oranges, oysters, pastries, peanut butter, pickles, pizza, Polish sausage, potatoes, pretzels, processed cheese, prunes, Pumpernickel, pumpkin, raisins, rye bread, salami, salmon, salt, salt substitutes, sardines, sausage, seeds, soy sauce, Spam, cooked spinach, sweet potato, Swiss chard, tomatoes or tomato sauce, vegetable juice cocktail, yogurt, whole grains, and winter squash.
INSTEAD OF CHEESE, ICE CREAM, MILK, AND YOGURT: tub margarine, butter, cream cheese, heavy cream, ricotta cheese, brie cheese, sherbet, and nondairy whipped topping.
RECOMMENDED AFTER DIALYSIS: eggs, fish, pork, and poultry.
NOT RECOMMENDED AFTER DIALYSIS: celery, grapes, ice cream, Jell-O, lettuce, melons, popsicles, and soups.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Government =/= Chamber of Commerce
This year, I hope to receive my master's in organizational management. And I am horrified by the position that government is supposed to operate as though it is a business.
Chambers of commerce have no business dictating to government, no matter what one Republican legislator thinks. Businesses conflate what is good for them with what is good for country and community. It should be a priority to keep those interests separate and, certainly for legislators, to understand why they are kept separate.
Chambers of commerce have no business dictating to government, no matter what one Republican legislator thinks. Businesses conflate what is good for them with what is good for country and community. It should be a priority to keep those interests separate and, certainly for legislators, to understand why they are kept separate.
Top 10 Hate-Its
Things I hate about my 80-year-old mother being in a hospital-level rehab at the moment:
1. She is not consistently lucid.
2. She is supposed to be "stable" but isn't really.
3. She refuses to exercise (she fears pain, and rehab is working through pain).
4. Dialysis takes up huge portions of her week.
5. She can't see well enough to read her meal-selection cards (or anything else).
6. She can't hear well enough to respond intelligently to her nurses and doctor.
7. When she is lucid, she gets depressed.
8. I worry that subjecting her to rehab at this point in her life is cruel.
9. Her periods of confusion reveal a life of unease in her adopted country.
10. I am told that she cannot ever have her beloved mashed potatoes or orange juice again (or cheese, or ice cream, or bananas, or caramels) because of the failure of her kidneys.
1. She is not consistently lucid.
2. She is supposed to be "stable" but isn't really.
3. She refuses to exercise (she fears pain, and rehab is working through pain).
4. Dialysis takes up huge portions of her week.
5. She can't see well enough to read her meal-selection cards (or anything else).
6. She can't hear well enough to respond intelligently to her nurses and doctor.
7. When she is lucid, she gets depressed.
8. I worry that subjecting her to rehab at this point in her life is cruel.
9. Her periods of confusion reveal a life of unease in her adopted country.
10. I am told that she cannot ever have her beloved mashed potatoes or orange juice again (or cheese, or ice cream, or bananas, or caramels) because of the failure of her kidneys.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Copter
I got my husband a remote-controlled helicopter for Christmas. He said he didn't want anything, but he reeeeeallly wanted one of these.
Now he's bought himself a second one. The Christmas one takes video; the yellow one has more range of motion.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Breathe
I don't mean to exaggerate my mother's condition. I do mean to use this blog to express how I'm feeling. My question at this time is: How stable is she? The idea at rehab is that she is supposed to be stable.
Crash
When I arrived today to my mother's room, I found my two sisters and an oxygen tube leading to her nose. Apparently, yesterday, during dialysis, her blood pressure crashed. It is not clear what the sequence of events might have been, leading to her need to be on oxygen. I have terrible anxiety at this point.
The folder in her room indicates that more than 60% of the people in the hospital-level rehab (where she now is) are there because of how medically complicated their pictures are. That's my mother, certainly: The aneurysms, the ulcer, the GI bleed, the diverticulitis and associated abscess, the kidney failure, her legs' incapacity to hold her up, and her cataracts' effects on her vision. Of course, she was already auditorially challenged.
She is on two antibiotics but probably has a UTI. She does have a yeast infection, visible to one nurse. She seemed a bit confused early on, but later was alert to her situation -- and sad.
She expressed that what she craves most is the ability to see, to read, to verify. Next, she would feel less on the fringes of the family if she could hear. Man, I wish I could make that difference for her! I feel like all I can do is visit -- but I don't know that visits answer anybody's needs but mine.
The folder in her room indicates that more than 60% of the people in the hospital-level rehab (where she now is) are there because of how medically complicated their pictures are. That's my mother, certainly: The aneurysms, the ulcer, the GI bleed, the diverticulitis and associated abscess, the kidney failure, her legs' incapacity to hold her up, and her cataracts' effects on her vision. Of course, she was already auditorially challenged.
She is on two antibiotics but probably has a UTI. She does have a yeast infection, visible to one nurse. She seemed a bit confused early on, but later was alert to her situation -- and sad.
She expressed that what she craves most is the ability to see, to read, to verify. Next, she would feel less on the fringes of the family if she could hear. Man, I wish I could make that difference for her! I feel like all I can do is visit -- but I don't know that visits answer anybody's needs but mine.
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