Day 3 - Sack of Potatoes!

cleo was moved last night from the CDU into a specialist stroke ward. This is good in one sense in that in this ward they are better able to deal with stroke victims, and they have physiotherapy and stuff all on hand there.

I visted her this morning, although i had to wait over an hour while they did physio and stuff with her. I get in there and ask her how she is, and she admits to doing something really silly last night: wanting to go to the toilet (again!) she decides she will try and walk to the toilet unaided. Gets herself to the edge of the bed, and promptly falls on the floor "like a sack of potatoes" (her words). Stubborn woman that she is, and which i love her for, but not when she does these sort of things!!

We sort of laughed later as she described how she was trying to wave at the nurses from behind the bed and nobody saw her. Result of all this is twofold: a badly grazed hip, which could have been far worse, and an acceptance that she will not get off the bed and walk without proper help and physio.

This evening I took the girls to Macdonalds and treated them to a meal there before visiting, which was nice. We all got to the hospital and the visit started off with everyone getting emotional: cleo in tears, me the same and then the girls. Enter Matron, who spent much time with us over the next hour, impressing cleo, and all of us that recovery is more than possible, with work and physio, and that the people here are the best. Ultimately this was good psychology and we agreed to set goals. I have suggested that we might look at Christmas for getting home, if only for a couple of days, although i am not sure if thats possible just yet, but we will see.

Now everyone has something to look forward to, and cleo has something to work for; to get herself enthused about, and to give a focus to her physio.

Pureed food....

next thing was dinner.. served up as puree. What we dont realise until we have exposure to this kind of episode, and i certainly didn't, was that when one has the obvious paralysis, arms and legs etc there are far less obvious but just as important considerations: swallowing for example. When there is paralysis within the throat, or mouth the ability to swallow correctly can be lost for a while. Trying to drink too fast, or chew lumps of food can cause choking. The doctors actually do "swallow reflex" checks, and from these can decide how best one should receive food. In cleos case for a couple of days they have decided that pureed food is best. Sarah sat and fed her mum some of this awful looking pureed mashy stuff that frankly didn't look that appetising. Still, its all part of the regime i guess.

Peter Piper...

I pointed out to cleo that sometimes just talking can help, and so we tried getting her to say tongue twisters. She lay there rapidly saying the Peter Piper verse, followed by "She sells sea shells..." It was obvious she was concentrating so hard, and as she did the enunciation got worse and worse, but the concentration on her face was a picture. We all laughed, and it was the first time i think that we had laughed together, all four of us since monday. A good moment.

That was a nice light few minutes, and one of those little times that we will all remember.

By ten to eight she was getting really tired, but was fighting it because she didn't want us to go.
I kissed her, and hugged her, and it was nice to feel her close to me again, because i miss that. Then i made a spontaneous decision: the car was parked a way up the road, and so i said "OK I am going to go get the car, leave the girls here for 10 minutes on their own". I walked away, and left the girls to be alone with their mum. When they came to the car they said she got all emotional again but I was pleased they had got a few minutes without any distractions to be with their mum.

Home now and the round of phone calls and stuff, but we were all quite relaxed at home which was nice.