Day 56 - Eight Weeks Since..

Weekends as i have said many times are awful; we get so little time together, and everything seems to be rushed, always geared to getting to and from work in London.

I got home this morning at about 7.30am, and cleo was just waking up. One good thing this last couple of nights is that she seems to be sleeping a little better. Maybe just being a little more relaxed is one reason, and perhaps also the improvement in her general well-being has helped too. It's eight weeks since the stroke now, and while there is still a long way to go, the further that awful day recedes into the past the better as far as i am concerned.

Shake a leg!

cleo and I have discussed on several occasions how improvements may happen in her recovery, and while many of these can be measured in very small increments, we also believe that there will be times when suddenly, and without warning, we might realise that she was doing something which we had not noticed before. This morning we had one of those moments. I was helping her to get up from the bed when all of a sudden her left leg, which hitherto had not moved without great effort and with little lateral control, suddenly lifted and swung off the bed almost normally, and with her toes pointing, again something we had not seen before today. Sometimes I think these unconscious moves are more natural than trying to create a movement "to order" by thinking about it too much. This was a one-off; after that the leg seemed to return to it's previously less active state, but I take great encouragement from this, simply because it demonstrates the brain and all the motor functions are beginning to operate again.

After a cup of tea it was bed and sleep, and cleo just pottering around on the pc till I woke at 2.30 and then the rush to get ready and out to work again.

I feel that we are acting more as a family again, even down to the little niggles and moans and groans that one expects, and for me this is a good sign: the more normal we are the closer cleo is getting to achieving a recovery.

Tomorrow we begin sorting the wedding in earnest, and on Tuesday we have to go to the registry office in Ramsgate to declare our legal "intention to marry", and of course pay for the wedding! I hope the week goes as well overall as this last one has.