Yorkshire Sculpture Park day out

Dear all,

Forgive my silence -- it is about retiring and selling my house! Sorry! I Have been trying to put photos in here but it is hard to do with words. So I will continue in another way.

This first photo shows Airasa getting him to the taxi at Pinderfields.

Back to narrative: Graham is doing very well -- while Airasa and Ian were away last weekend I visited him on both Saturday and Sunday so he was pleased to see me. He was up and ate and used a new gizmo I brought him -- a plastic partition for his plate for pushing against. It seemed to work pretty well and he has continued to use it.

The US Embassy in London is now involved in getting Graham repatriated, so it could be just a few weeks now before he is back in California. A few things need to be sorted out still, but once everything is in place it will be goodbye to England for Graham.
The picture to the left shows the taxi lift gate.

I am going to post this onto

www.ufoespblog.blogspot.com website so I can put photos from our day out at Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Friday. We were away from the hospital for over 5 hours and Graham did very well indeed. He was tired when we got back to the hospital but so were we all!

As long as Graham can be in his wheelchair a few hours a day he is in better spirits because then he can do things for himself once set up -- like read a bit and feed himself and run his television/video. So far the new treatment seems to be working well on his skin, thought we did not get a report after his trip out. We hope it works so he can continue to get up every day and have his physiotherapy and his occupational therapy.

Thank you again to all those who are pressing forward with emptying out his apartment and moving stuff to the storage facility. It will make the upcoming move easier to have only him to get into an apartment and not all his stuff as well.

The next photo shows Airasa and Graham when we first arrived at the Sculpture Park and entered the building.

Back to narrabive: That he can read a magazine now is good. Reading is so important for Graham. He is also starting to use voice activated software on a computer. Progress!

OK, enough of this -- I will put it on the blog and add a bunch of pictures from Friday. I have now placed the rest of the photos on the website in the order they happened. So you can see some of what we did on the day out!

Kind regards to you all,
Linda

Graham eats at the restaurant

wheeling down the hallway by himself

wheeling outside towards exhibit
Airasa and Ian and countryside
Graham at Molecule people

This is the second half of the trip in photos.
Looking at Brochures
Graham and Ian at Totem Pole

Linda with Fish
Airasa with Taurus
Ian with Letter 'i'
With the family sculptures
Afternoon snack in cafeteria
On the pathway in the park
Waiting for taxi home
differen type of taxi
up the steep ramp and home I hope you have enjoyed these photos. I took 70 of them so I have reduced the number considerably! It is quite time consuming to put so many onto the blog, but it is nice to share this with you all.


I am off to the Picnic for Peace in Roundhay Park now.

Kind regards,
Linda

Very Brief update and a couple of photos

Dear all,

I have seen Graham at the weekend quite extensively and yesterday I talked to the US Embassy in the start of the process to have him repatriated to California. As his insurance won't pay the bill, hopefully the USA will.

On Friday this week we are taking Graham to a local sculpture park. I will take photos and put them onto the blog after that.

Graham is keeping his spirits up and it is good to see him sitting up and eating and reading his newspaper. I have a photo or two on that I will put onto the blog.

I am retiring this week and so I am in work for my final week. After this I will have more time to write a better report -- but more importantly to get an email from him rather than from me!

This IS short!!

Kind regards,
Linda

Photos from Pastor Steve's visit

Graham has had a very special visitor this weekend and I now can put photos onto the blog, so have selected a series showing the two day visit for all of you to see. Graham seems to be making good mental progress in thinking about his move back to California. Fingers crossed that there is movement on that front soon! He needs his rehab centre and he needs an appropriate apartment! Then he will be there in California again.

OK, here is a series of photos from the past two days showing Graham and his visitor from California, Pastor Steve from the Goleta Presbyterian Church. Graham waited until our arrival to start his daily sitting up so he could spend it with Steve. I dropped Steve off and came back later for him. The photos show Graham being hoisted to his wheel chair, then with Steve; then with his favourite nurse (that is what I think anyway, as she is very kind and helpful all the time); then wheeling himself down the hall with Steve by his side. The next day (today)there are two photos from after the chapel service with the local pastor and finally sitting outside enjoying the 30C weather. The final photo shows Graham ready to read his newspaper himself, saying goodbye to Steve.

Hot July news

Good morning everyone,

Well I saw Graham Monday evening and he seemed to be both up and down. He was down because he is back in bed a lot. That is always hard for him as it takes away any of his ability to do anything at all for himself. He can barely even stretch out his arms and back without help when he is lying down. Plus it means his neck gets tired being in one position for 4 hours, and then being turned and in the same position on the other side for 4 hours. He will get up for a couple of hours a day, but the pink dodgy skin in a couple of places keeps them enforcing bedrest.

However the up part is that he had been on a very interesting outing all day the previous Thursday. They took all the wheelchair folks in a special bus on a long road trip to [Nottingham?] where they went to a Motability display of all sorts of things to help people who need help. there were all these different types of wheel chairs and electric vehicles, various gloves, and other gadgets to help people who need this sort of help. He found the bus ride a bit noisy and during the ride they found out the initial sketchy news about the bombs in London. He hung around with another guy in a wheelchair at the event and a carer. They got some take away food which was at least different! It was a very long day out -- about 8 hours. He found it very interesting to see all the various items that have been invented. He was disappointed that there was nothing about computers as he was hoping to see what kinds of gadgets they had for those. Still it was a day out! His first since he fell over 6 months ago.

We had a long talk about his worldly goods. Of course it is a wrench for him to think of all his 'stuff' being packed up and thinking he will never see it again. We talked at length about getting a storage facility where everything can be kept together for a reasonable sum of money and help out those wonderful folks of you who are doing all this packing and need more space to pack more. I told him you felt it is important to get things packed up so you can move him at the drop of a hat. If an apartment arises it will be much easier if his things are in storage and he can move into the new place unencumbered for the time being. I told him you are labelling everything carefully and we think you have a map of the place to say where things came from as well. Most important is just saying what is in the boxes. Though it is hard for him, I believe he has accepted that getting a storage facility is a good idea. I said at least he would have all his things in one place rather than a few boxes here and another few there without knowing who has what. Please wait for a final 'yes' from him before going ahead -- I expect that will come this week -- probably from Airasa or through and MP3 message from Graham himself. When I see him next, if he has not made the final decision, I will encourage him to take the plunge. It is the best way of dealing with everything now. I said then one box at a time can be brought to him in his new place for him to make decisions about.

He is very much looking forward to the visit from Pastor Steve on Saturday and possibly on Sunday. I will take Steve to and from the hospital and he will stay at Airasa's place. It is really nice for Graham to have this to look forward to. He may well make the decision about his things then, as he is going to discuss some of his books being in the church library and I am sure Steve will get Graham to agree to have everything put into storage as the best solution for now.

WE have had incredibly hot weather for England the past week or so. The hottest summer I can remember since moving here 24 years ago!

Of course we have also had the very unfortunate negative terrorist bombings in London and if you are following the news you will know that some of the terrorists came from Leeds. It appears they have blown themselves up in their desire to bring terror. And, although it is a terrible thing and people are very affected by it, there is a wonderful spirit in the British people that is summed up by this statement made by someone: 'We had the Blitz in WWII, we had the IRA -- nice try terrorists, but no cigar -- let's have a nice cuppa tea!'

A friend of mine also sent this to me:
I was watching a documentry on WWII years back. An aged American pilot reminisced. The scene was recreated in which a pilot was dangling by parachute straps from a tree. A Brit housewife runs out with a cup served on a saucer to hand the man—who is swearing, saying that a step ladder and a knife would be much more useful. The lady says, "There, there. My girl is going across the street to borrow a ladder. But first a cup of tea. It will be all right."
So you can see, the Brits are really together about these things. London was open virtually the next day. Leeds has had quite a lot of stuff happening around the houses of the suspected terrorists. In fact it even came right home to me -- as I was leaving yesterday there were two large mini-buses and an ambulance keeping me in momentarily -- 26 residents from a sister care home on Burley Road had to be evacuated to our care home -- and one of the staff said to me 'chef had to whip up 26 extra meals and he did it in half an hour!!' We have vigils on Thursday at noon and at 6 p.m. for the victims of the bombings. My own Dean of my faculty was in London and was 20 seconds away from the bus that blew up -- she had just entered the building having literally just walked past the bus.

I personally would like to thank all of you who wrote to me after the bombings to extend your sympathy and kindness. The Launch of the Walk for Peace 2005 on Sunday was all the more poignant after the events of the previous Thursday.

May peace prevail. May we educate our youths so that they can get along with each other and not feel the need to take such drastic steps to be heard. May we learn to take care of all the people of the world with social justice for all.

Oops, slipped onto my soap box there for a moment.

Enough from me. I will take photos when Steve visits.

WE are hoping that Graham may be moved by the end of the summer. It will be wonderful if he can be near all of you so you can visit him and help him to recover in spirit even if his body will not recover any more. I hold out hope that he will still improve but if he ends up in his current state, that is something we can all live with.

Love and peace to you all,
Linda

Around the corner 

Through the ward 

Down the Hallway! 

Dear all,

I went to see Graham yesterday afternoon and stayed a couple of hours. What was extremely exciting was that he was up in his wheelchair when I arrived, and he suggested that we go to the patient lounge. I said, fine. Whereupon he proceeded to wheel himself there!! I was mightily impressed and attach a couple of photos here for you. Look at them in the following order: Graham wheels to the patient lounge (you can see his bed behind on the left, all made up for when he is sitting up); wheeling through the ward (his space is at the back left); turning the corner (this is the area he was in first at the back -- the nurses station is at the right, you can't see it); down the hallway (the ward is behind him); in the patient lounge (sat ready to dictate some post cards and have a visit).

This was the first time I have see him sitting up with out his collar as well because the last time I was in when he was in the wheel chair was when he was still wearing the collar. He had been back in bed every visit I made since then, though I knew he was getting up. So this actually represents quite a change from when he was up before.

He is allowed up for a couple of hours at a time now. This is good as he is hoping to go on an outing with the Ward 1 patients on the 7th of July and he will need to be able to be up for several hours for that. The pressure sores seem to be at bay now, and he didn't even have the botox treatment as they seemed to clear up without it.

He was pleased to announce he had a bath yesterday (the shower was actually broken) and though it is harder to get him in and out of the bath, once in they managed to scrub him and get a lot of the old skin off him that does not really come off in the shower. They washed his hair, and I brushed it for him before I left, cleaning out the last of the pin holes on the back of his head. Three of the four holes are healed, this last one taking a bit more time. Partly this is due to him being in bed with his head on the side so that the hair was sticking in the hole. No one seems to spend much time grooming him, so when I go in I make it a point to work on the holes to clear them out. I also give his head a really good hairbrushing so that makes him feel really good.

He is looking forward with great anticipation to the visit from Pastor Steve from his church. I know it is nice to have the anticipation of someone coming to visit as he only has Airasa and Ian and me visiting, and I have been a bit distracted lately with the Walk for Peace I am facilitating that is being launched on Sunday the 10th of July. There is much to do for that, and we are now hoping for 1000 people. I am sure you would all come along if you were in town!

We didn't tell him about the possibility of Steve coming until we were sure as it would have been a let down to anticipate and be disappointed. Steve arrives on the 16th and leaves the 17th and Graham is hoping that Steve might be able to go to chapel with him on the Sunday morning at the hospital. That would be lovely for him, I am sure.

With the packing up of his books, it is becomeing clearer that his return to California grows near. I believe he is adjusting to the facts of this now, and seems to be looking forward to it, though of course the change will be a bit nerve wracking for him (for anyone). There is the preparation for flying and how he gets there, but before he will be allowed to return he will have to have both the medical facility and his home apartment set up. When he is back in California, he will go to the medical facility first and be introduced to his apartment over time with regular visits there to get used to it. He will need help most of the time, so if he happens to ge a 2 bedroom apartment, his carer could live in with him.

Of course this is all out of our hands now. We know that discussions are taking place in California and we hope to hear that a suitable home is found so that he can come there while the weather is still nice. He is enjoying the heat here though some of us find some of the days too hot. As he has said, a quadriplegic does not have the ability to regulate body temperature, so a warm day feels better than a cold one.

He has recently received a box of CDs from his own collection, and a box of cassette tapes from his own collection. Thank you those who retrieved them and those who sent them. He does love his own music and it helps him get through the days.

I was saying to him how much I admire the courage he has shown through these past 6 months (hard to believe but it is only a day or two away from 6 months since this happened) and he said that he just takes it one day at a time. He said he had recently learned something very important -- that if you know someone in worse condition than yourself it is not something that means you cannot feel bad about your own situation. I told him that I felt guilty considering my toe (which turned out to be broken) knowing he was in the hospital paralysed. He said he has learned to look at another lad there who is really a lot worse off (can't breathe on his own, will never be able to do anything for himself) and not castigate himself for being better than that, but instead to appreciate that each person has their own condition to deal with and comparing them helps no one. Feeling sorry for oneself for being worse off, or feeling better for being better off, does no good at all. Dealing with every day as it comes, in the condition that is currently presented, is all anyone can do.

I know his faith has helped tremendously to make his daily life bearable. He sees a chaplain nearly every day and takes communion regularly.

But also what has helped him so much is the love and care that each of you has sent his direction over these months. Your cards, letters, photographs, videos, packages, and phone calls have made it possible for him to progress day by day.

After being in bed so much this past month, I was so proud of him for wheeling himself to the patient lounge. There was one point he could not manage, where the door to the patient lounge is, the floor goes up and over a join. He just could not manage to get his hands back fast enough to rock fast enough to get over the join. I helped him through and could see he was disappointed with himself. But he quickly got over it and felt the joy of doing so much. I am very proud of how he has made progress. When I left he was busy feeding himself again. This skill he had gained before being stuck in bed for so long is now returning, though it will take a while for him to be back to being as precise as he had been.

We are hoping to take him to the sculpture park nearby one of these days. It is also possible he can now come and visit me in my new flat as it is wheelchair accessible. So that will provide him something else to accomplish before leaving England to return to California.

Thank you again to all of you who are helping to keep his spirits up. When he gets back we hope you will all find a way to keep visiting him so he has at least one visitor a day. The visits he has make all the difference to his days. With so many of you, perhaps you will set up some sort of rota. I know he will also enjoy being able to be in his own church on Sundays.

So that is a longer update than I expected to write, but since I type 90 wpm and I have not written for a while, it seemed appropriate to do this.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

I also hope you are enjoying the summer. We are having really nice weather. The G8 conference about to start at Gleneagles in Scotland has provided the impetus for many people taking a stand against poverty, for the African people, and for peace. It is wonderful to see that we can make a difference if we act as a whole.

May the light of love and peace shine brightly on all of you,
Kind regards,
Linda
PS please note my new email address. I am keeping the other one for spam!!