I feel for your situation with your mom, but I love the idea of Ginger as a bribe. It would definitely work for me if I were in your mom’s position.

Ginger sounds like she is certainly blooming under your tender loving care. No surprise there!

We did rule out physical problems; her knee is actually healing very well and her overall health is very good for 76 years old. They are working on the pain meds and today she seemed more comfortable.

The physical therapist in the nursing home was awesome. Firm enough to push her yet compassionate enough to give her breaks and make sure she had enough pain meds. And then, after her PT, I brought Bashir in for a therapy dog visit. Ginger is not under enough control and I didn’t want to risk her jumping on Mom’s new knee.

Bashir was a wonderful therapy dog for her; leaned up against the good knee, gave her some kisses on the hand, rubbed under her hand so she had to pet him, and while we were talking, he rested with his head on her foot.

(And then of course, we had to visit the rest of the facility - staff and residents!)

My sister brought in her two boys, too. So Mom had therapy dog visit and grandkids ‘therapy’.

I told her if we had a good report from the PT tomorrow we’d do the same thing!

When she makes some good progress and her knee isn’t quite so painful, I’ll bring Ginger in.

Bribery? No, just motivation, right?

My Mom goes off for a week of pt and a stay with her sister after 3 years in my care with no more than an overnight away. It’s tough to send her off, but I’m hoping my Aunt, the Drill Sargent will convince her that I’m not so bad…

Just like we all preach when our dogs have “issues”; rule out physical stuff first. Work with the nurses and doctors to be sure pain is being adequately controlled with meds and ice packs, and to be sure there are not any post op complications that may be making PT harder than it needs to be.

You may see an improvement in progress with the transfer to the nursing home. A lot of folks going there for rehab take a look around and see that a) there are a lot of people worse off, and b) that it is not somewhere they are ready to stay on a permanent basis so getting home becomes a powerful motivator.

I like the idea of using Ginger visits as a motivator or reward for good compliance with PT.

Good luck with continued success with Ginger AND with mom!

I’m sorry about your mom, though. My dad just had surgery on his hand and he uses play time on the guitar as his reward for doing the physical therapy work (which hurts a lot more than the surgery itself did). I really hope there is some motivator for your mom (like others said, maybe Ginger visits).

Katie?

Honestly, I’d get pretty hard-core with a family member who did this. I’d bring Ginger to visit in the nursing home — only immediately after Mom completed a round of PT successfully.

My parents did something like this with me when I was a kid after I had (my first) knee surgery. I wouldn’t put weight on it and they made a similar kind of “deal” contingent on my putting weight on it.

You better bet I started following doctor’s orders after that!

Bribery can be a good thing . . . . . . . . . . .