1/14/15 - Day 174: Today was our big Family Meeting at Kaiser. Apparently, Kayla and I had our defensive posture set for the meeting that I was expecting bad news. As it turned out, really no bad news. Just an opportunity to make sure that we were all on the same page. Keiths speech therapist seemed a bit concerned that his swallowing has not progressed any further. It seems he has hit a plateau and she feels he needs a bit of a break. She has been using an electric stimulation on his throat to get his swallowing to advance. She would have to turn it up to 8 or 9 for it to do any good. Keith has been getting angry with fists clenched when she turned it up to 3. He is swallowing well enough to eat most anything he wants. He just cant swallow liquids of a water consistency without choking. We agreed to give a reprieve from the stimulator. She also mentioned that Keiths memory is similar to swiss cheese. He is having great difficulty reading, doing math and counting change. Feel that these areas need to be addressed. The physical therapist mentioned that Keith is working hard, but will take shortcuts if possible. When walking, he will wall walk if given the opportunity. Also concerned that he may have an inner ear issue that is causing him to be dizzy and effecting his balance. We also reminded them that he has no vision in left eye and a decreased field of vision in the right eye which could be effecting all of these areas. Also addressed additional rehab on Keiths shoulder. Then we got to speak with the neuropsychologist. Frankly, we have all been avoiding having to talk to him. He is a nice guy, but just didnt really want to admit that Kayla, Elecia and I could all use a little therapy ourselves. He was very encouraging and complimented us on how we have been dealing with this role of caregivers that none of us had any say about. He gave us some good information on how to deal with Keiths angry outbursts. This is ALL on the job training. He also reminded us that, just like raising children, no one gets it right 100% of the time. We all make mistakes. ( He also threw in the Maslows Hierarchy that I paid attention to in college, but not much since then ) We also discussed what our plans were regarding care after Kaiser. I explained our plans regarding QLI in Omaha. He agreed that that was a good plan and that he would be recommending a facility of this type if we had not already planned on this. Willing to help us in any way to assist with getting him admitted to QLI. So, the meeting we were concerned about ended up being nothing but a strategy session. We are a bit concerned that Keith is coming down with a cold. We can tell he is not feeling well, but no fever, just a runny nose and congestion.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 02:03:21 +0000
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