Swallow Evaluation Efforts

I had another fun Thursday visit with Allison. We talked, laughed, did massage, and Alison moved her limbs. I talked to Mary Pat who had visited again on Tuesday.

Alison this week reported that she had AGAIN been fed, FOURtimes since my last visit a week ago. It looks like it has been Marshall? of the evening shift. IT ALSO INCLUDED WATER AND TEA (not thickened). Alison said she was ok with the food but not the drink. Neither the floor nurse nor the day time staff had done anything since I told them aweek ago to investigate why Alison had been fed the previous week despite being listed as NPO.

I immediately got Yolande, the unit manager, to come down and talk with us. She is going to investigate who is feeding Alison AND stop the food delivery. As well, I contacted Rachel (OT) and repeated my request from the previous week for her to do another swallow evaluation. After I had left, Rachel called me to share that she had done a preliminary swallow test and said that Alison appears to again be able to handle nectar-thick foods. Rachel will repeat the evaluation next week though before she allows Alison to start eating again. I will pass on whatever are the results of the speech evaluation once/if I get notified.

In parallel, Reenie had also called to the administrator of BridgePark (Mike Moranz) Wednesday and heard back from him today. Reenie is pushing for therapy (physical*, occupational, speech). He said Speech Therapy will evaluate Alison this weekend, and Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy will evaluate her next week. Mike will let Reenie know the findings of their evaluations and their recommended game plan(s), in order to figure out how to move forward. If Reenie gets called, please also pass it on to the rest of us.

I'll keep you posted on what I learn. Hopefully, it will be to have food taken into Alison eg lobster bisque, carrot juice (which needs to be thickened), chiobani yogurt (she really likes “Chobani Bite” Coffee with Dark Chocolate Chips), and puddings. No more spreadable cheese please as Alsion found it harder to swallow. Someone will also need to update Rolina.... AND who ever is doing the feedings will need to watch for the return of Alison's "fainting/seizures" to keep her from choking.

I am out of town next week so will be unable to visit until July 3 (so no blog post?). Amy said she would try to go this and next Sunday.

* Note: I seem to remember that PT needs to be "goal-based, with progress" for it to be covered by Medicaid. Just getting stronger does not count. Last time they stopped PT, Lakshmi of the rehab center at BridgePort told me that it was because they had determined that Alision was not strong enough to progress on moving herself from a bed to a chair. But they would look at this again ion the future.