Day 9 - First Date

Today has been overall a good day.

On arrival at the hospital this afternoon, cleo was sitting up again, and looking every bit as good as yesterday. The ward had provided a special "stroke chair" for her a few days ago, which is height adjustable, with drop down arms, but of course these only work if they are adjusted correctly. We were told the importance of keeping cleo's feet on a small footrest provided with the chair, for support especially to her paralysed leg; my first observation when i walked in was "where's the footrest?". Now, cleo cant get out of the chair on her own, and it seems that there are only 4 nurses for the whole ward today. It takes so long to get everyone fed and washed, and up in the morning that she apparently lay in her bed till nearly midday, when she was raring to get sat up. The fact that there are not enough staff means that they do not have the time to ensure each patient is properly dealt with, hence the missing footrest. It was simply under the bed. So I am down on my knees pulling this rest out, and loudly moaning about not getting things properly organised...when out of nowhere comes James, the head physiotherapist.

We agree that she will go to the gym with James, and they produce a wheelchair immediately.

The transfer into the wheelchair makes cleo look far more comfortable, and the footrests that are part of the wheelchair seem to work far better for her than the wooden one that was supplied with the chair.

So it's off to the gym, and an hour's solid workout which included exercises to get her shoulder and arm working followed by standing, balance and walking exercises. While she is very unstable right now, it is evident of her determination to work as hard as possible on this.

She is asking questions, trying to understand the reason for each move, and the benefit that each will bring. The most trying moment was when they had her standing, and trying move her leg forward in a walking action: at the moment it wont go on its own, but just to see the strain on her face, trying so hard to will the leg to move, was great. I have no doubt that this determination and fighting spirit, provided we can keep her spirits up and her focus on it, will be the deciding factor in the time it takes to get her out of the hospital, and just how much she actually recovers. At this rate it will be soon, and she will be good as new!

Talking about timings, Matron was suggesting yesterday that we might even get her home for Christmas, and she said the same to James, the physio. So far they have not poo-pooed that goal, and she is absolutely determined to be out by 17th December. The next 3 weeks will be tough, but we will all do whatever we can.

After getting back from physio, I had to dash home to collect the girls from school. I suggested to the nurses that when we all got back we could wheel cleo to the patients restaurant and have a coffee. So we made a date. I told her to get her gladrags on as we were going out. This was considered a good idea, and so, arriving back with Sarah and Hannah we duly set off, signing cleo out of the ward, and pushed her to the restaurant where we sat for half an hour chatting and having coffee. That was a nice break for cleo, because as a friend pointed out you can very quickly go "stir crazy" in a hospital ward. Our first date went quite well.

I think she likes me.

I was born to love you..

I am reminded for some reason this evening of the Queen Song, penned by the late great Freddie Mercury, the words of which sum up how i feel about cleo:

I was born to love you
With every single beat of my heart
Yes, I was born to take care of you
Every single day...

(chorus:)
I was born to love you
With every single beat of my heart
Yes, I was born to take care of you
Every single day of my life

You are the one for me
I am the man for you
You were made for me
You’re my ecstasy
If I was given every opportunity
I’d kill for your love
So take a chance with me
Let me romance with you
I’m caught in a dream
And my dream’s come true
It’s so hard to believe
This is happening to me
An amazing feeling
Coming through

-(chorus)

I wanna love you
I love every little thing about you
I wanna love you, love you, love you
Born - to love you
Born - to love you
Yes I was born to love you

Born - to love you
Born - to love you
Every single day - of my life
An amazing feeling
Comin’ through

(chorus)

Yes I was born to love you
Every single day of my life
Go, I love you babe
Yes, I was born to love you
I wanna love you, love you, love you
I wanna love you

I get so lonely, lonely, lonely
Yeah, I wan’t to love you
Yeah, give it to me

That about sums it up really. If you don't know the song, go listen. Its fab!!

Home now, and relaxing. I cheated tonight and bought fish and chips on the way home.