Day 68 - Upstairs, Downstairs

Last night cleo spent most of the night in some pain as a result of her swollen finger and the ring that she could not get off. By this morning it was even more swollen, and we had physiotherapy at 9.30. James said he would have a try at getting the ring off, but after 30 minutes we gave it up, and decided to go straight to a jeweller after the hospital. This we did, and we were lucky to find a wonderful jeweller near where we live who very carefully cut the ring off in about 5 seconds, with the right tool. I have to say the relief on cleo's face was very apparent when this was done, and within an hour or so the swelling in her finger had begun to go down.

We still have the ring, and we might have it repaired in the future as it has a lot of sentimental value for us, even though not much in terms of financial worth. For the moment, with cleo's swollen hand due to the paralysis and lack of mobility, when we get married in 2 weeks time we have opted not to exchange rings. This can of course be done at the handfasting in June.

So, after all this it was home and the preparation for work at the weekend, and cleo going into hermit mode in the bedroom for a couple of days. Having said that James has started practising walking downstairs with her this last week, and once OT get their act into gear and actually supply the second bannister we have been promised since before New Year we might even begin to get cleo building the confidence to get down the stairs on her own. This won't happen for a while because I know that she finds the prospect of descending the stairs quite daunting right now. Our stairs are quite steep and the last thing you need is to be unsteady when coming down a flight like that but we can make no progress until the bannister is actually installed. (mental note: kick ass next week about bannister!)

I fully accept that the hospital has to hand over the patient to the community care team, but the highest standards of care must be maintained. I admit I only have "gut feeling" about this right now, but i certainly don't see the team we have seen at home coming anywhere near the levels of expertise demonstrated by those staff who have been looking after cleo so far.

We still await the first visit of the community physio, and hopefully that will be next week, although I have to say that I hope the physio is as good as James (which I doubt) and if not then I may have to insist that cleo goes back to James. As in all these things my prime concern is for cleo's well being, and continued recovery and improvement. If we don't see that, then I start making noises.

Let's hope I don't have to.