Birthdays and visits update
Dear All,
I apologise that we have not been doing so many updates the past 2 weeks. We have been rather busy with a lot of things in our personal lives but I am here to send out a little update and a photo.
Graham is continuing to make progress but it is slow and it is hard to keep his spirits up sometimes. The emails have slowed down (at least the ones through me) and I suppose that feels a little slower to him as well. He continues to practice his new skills – feeding himself and wheeling his chair. However, he has had a bit of a cold and thus had to stay in bed a bit more which is hard, because when he is in bed he is totally helpless. When he is up he can at least watch television and control what he is watching.
Still I believe progress is being made.
Ian’s parents have been visiting this week and the photo shows the first (and possibly only) time that Airasa and Ian are in the same space with both sets of parents. Unfortunately it was a day that Graham was in bed so we could not go for a walk or sit and have a chat. But it was a nice visit. Graham had met Carole and Terry over the New Year when they went to Ireland. We saw some of the photos from that visit. After our family meal on Monday in the countryside, Carole and Terry made the trip out to see Graham on their own! As the traffic on the Bank Holiday was terrible, Carole managed to navigate through the back roads to the hospital to avoid the worst traffic queues.
Most of the visits the past two weeks, Graham has been up and talkative and we have gone to the patients’ day lounge or to Pinders café. We have talked about the election here (which was won by Labour for a historical 3rd term). He has been enjoying watching television and visiting with other patients. We also celebrated Airasa’s birthday at the hospital and Dylan came along (Naomi was in Sheffield but came up for the meal on Monday).
His doctor has returned and will see Graham soon. I know Graham is anxious to get the collar off as it is more uncomfortable than the halo was. It is very tight around his neck and it makes talking difficult. This can be quite frustrating and also seems to affect his breathing so he has to talk in a rather laboured way, stopping to take a breath more often and more obviously than he might otherwise have to do under normal circumstances.
We have not talked about his therapy much lately. We have also been celebrating Airasa’s 30th birthday the past couple of weeks (starting the 27th of April, the Day, at the hospital) so there is a photo attached from that as well. This has kept us a little busier in general.
Ok, everyone, that is a brief update.
Graham’s mum and cousin arrive today and will be staying at my house. They will probably go and visit him tomorrow and I will take my trusty camera along. I hope to capture Graham making his wheelchair move, but until he gets over this cold, that won’t be happening. He prefers the weekdays when he can do physiotherapy and occupational therapy and a day in bed did not make him very happy because he could not do his therapies. But on weekends we can go and stay longer so I expect his mum will spend a good deal of her visit at the hospital.
I will write another update in a few days.
Please send emails to me the next two weeks to print and read as I will probably be going out to the hospital more often than Airasa because I will take his mum and cousin there possibly daily.
I hope all of you are well. The sun is out this morning and I better get the house prepared for my guests.
Love to all,
Linda
I apologise that we have not been doing so many updates the past 2 weeks. We have been rather busy with a lot of things in our personal lives but I am here to send out a little update and a photo.
Graham is continuing to make progress but it is slow and it is hard to keep his spirits up sometimes. The emails have slowed down (at least the ones through me) and I suppose that feels a little slower to him as well. He continues to practice his new skills – feeding himself and wheeling his chair. However, he has had a bit of a cold and thus had to stay in bed a bit more which is hard, because when he is in bed he is totally helpless. When he is up he can at least watch television and control what he is watching.
Still I believe progress is being made.
Ian’s parents have been visiting this week and the photo shows the first (and possibly only) time that Airasa and Ian are in the same space with both sets of parents. Unfortunately it was a day that Graham was in bed so we could not go for a walk or sit and have a chat. But it was a nice visit. Graham had met Carole and Terry over the New Year when they went to Ireland. We saw some of the photos from that visit. After our family meal on Monday in the countryside, Carole and Terry made the trip out to see Graham on their own! As the traffic on the Bank Holiday was terrible, Carole managed to navigate through the back roads to the hospital to avoid the worst traffic queues.
Most of the visits the past two weeks, Graham has been up and talkative and we have gone to the patients’ day lounge or to Pinders café. We have talked about the election here (which was won by Labour for a historical 3rd term). He has been enjoying watching television and visiting with other patients. We also celebrated Airasa’s birthday at the hospital and Dylan came along (Naomi was in Sheffield but came up for the meal on Monday).
His doctor has returned and will see Graham soon. I know Graham is anxious to get the collar off as it is more uncomfortable than the halo was. It is very tight around his neck and it makes talking difficult. This can be quite frustrating and also seems to affect his breathing so he has to talk in a rather laboured way, stopping to take a breath more often and more obviously than he might otherwise have to do under normal circumstances.
We have not talked about his therapy much lately. We have also been celebrating Airasa’s 30th birthday the past couple of weeks (starting the 27th of April, the Day, at the hospital) so there is a photo attached from that as well. This has kept us a little busier in general.
Ok, everyone, that is a brief update.
Graham’s mum and cousin arrive today and will be staying at my house. They will probably go and visit him tomorrow and I will take my trusty camera along. I hope to capture Graham making his wheelchair move, but until he gets over this cold, that won’t be happening. He prefers the weekdays when he can do physiotherapy and occupational therapy and a day in bed did not make him very happy because he could not do his therapies. But on weekends we can go and stay longer so I expect his mum will spend a good deal of her visit at the hospital.
I will write another update in a few days.
Please send emails to me the next two weeks to print and read as I will probably be going out to the hospital more often than Airasa because I will take his mum and cousin there possibly daily.
I hope all of you are well. The sun is out this morning and I better get the house prepared for my guests.
Love to all,
Linda
posted by Cosmic Sunshine at 7:11 AM
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