And getting better in many small ways .....

Since the last post Douglas has been quite up and down by turns. The downs were really quite miserable for him I suspect and he was rather unresponsive to the extent that any form of physio was refused.
However by Wednesday he seemed to have gathered himself together a bit and, much to everyones surprise, one of the nurses (who has a very good way with him) breezed in and said - right now Doug. You don't get to lie there looking scruffy in my ward, so you're going to have a bath, get your hair washed and sit up in the chair for a couple of hours, so lets get started. In no time at all he was up in his chair, looking good! However, by the time it was all done, he was pretty bushed and sadly his visitors didn't really get much of his attention!
This was repeated every day and, by Sunday he was looking much better and being more positive about getting his trachy out and then getting rid of the PEG feeding tube!! He actually asked if he could have a drink of water! We felt really bad about saying 'no - cause you've still got to re-learn the art of swallowing'
He was a bit upset at that, but it didn't last long - Sheena explained all about trachies and swallowing etc. and one of the nurses talked over the business of getting used to breathing through his mouth and nose in preparation for trachy removal.

All in all his mood does seem to have improved greatly and he does appear to be thinking about the way forward (although perhaps he doesn't think of it quite that way yet). More important perhaps is that he does, at long last, appear to be believing folk when they say he IS getting better.
We hope this continues .....................

Once more ....... thank you all for your support! I know Douglas appreciates it even although he can't always join in the chat.

Iain

A much better week ....

Some time ago I referred to a roller coaster ride. Well here we go again, but this time a definite up slope!!
Douglas suddenly seemed to have established a new sense of peace and acceptance by the end of last week and his mood lightened very considerably. This co-incided with the arrival of a new Registrar who talked with him about how he was going to progress to getting out of the Western and on to re-hab. He spoke with Doug about having a set of weekly goals (agreed with Doug) against which to measure progression and made it quite clear that Douglas was not sick enough to still be lying abed.
Much to our surprise, Doug agreed with all his plans and gave him the "O" finger sign!!
Things started to look up quite a bit.

His chest is still an issue and the Docs decided that, on the basis of a couple of cultures, that they'd put him on a 5 day anti-biotic blast (Wednesday). Furthermore the Opthalmist told him that he really wanted to re-apply the eyelid stitches to his left eye in order to make sure that it was not damaged before a 'final fix' could be applied. Doug was a bit upset at the thought of this (Thursday) and we were somewhat concerned at the possibility that he'd refuse at the last minute.
However, this afternoon (Friday) the stitching went ahead and after it all Doug was quite relaxed.
Absolutely brilliant !!!!!!!
We read out a few messages (Lorna, Jules and DavyP) and this caused a few tears, but he quickly recovered.

He does seem to have crossed over some invisible boundary ..................

He now has a new 'laptop like device' for speech generation and thinks its a bit dubious but is prepared to give it a go. On Thursday he wrote that he wished a very happy holiday to one of the nurses who was off to Malta for a couple of weeks - sheesh, he continually surprises us!

Keep up the support folks .................... at long last it seems to be really working!

Iain

A real mixed up week ............

Poor Douglas has had quite a rotten week and is obviously trying to come to terms with all that has happened to him. Sometimes his mood lightens a bit but its all very up and down right now.
He had a really bad 24 hours on Wednesday/Thursday when it seemed that he had completely abandoned any attempt to keep going and was refusing to be fed, suctioned or given medication. We were very worried about him ............

However, by Friday he seemed to have recovered his will to go on and by Sunday he was becoming more responsive and a bit less negative. Unfortunately this has not yet resulted in co-operation with the physios (sitting up out of bed etc.) and so his chesty condition continues to be a bother to him although, despite it all, his cough reflex does seem to be getting much of it out without deep suctioning.
He has had spells when he wanted to watch videos and listen to audio books so perhaps all is not as gloomy as it sometimes feels.
We can but hope that he recovers his will to press on.

Every day seems to bring new challenges and we are, I think, coming to terms with the fact that we deal with things on a day to day basis where long term really means the end of a week.

We read the Blog and Facebook messages to him whenever he seems to be receptive - he can get quite emotional and tearful sometimes - and he does listen attentively and frequently gives thumbs up (or down!) depending on the content !! So keep them coming folks - Doug does appreciate them and one day I'm sure he'll be replying for himself.
If asked whether he wants visitors he'll often shake his head but when folk turn up 'unannounced' he's pleased to see them so please bear with him if he's feeling really lousy when you come along.

Iain

Another flitting .........

To-day Doug was moved from Ward 33 to Ward 31. He was a bit upset at the thought of the move but he seemed to get over this after it was all over.
I really would love to believe that it represents one step nearer the door out but perhaps that's wishful thinking.
He does seem to be marginally lighter in mood but can still be a bit reluctant to see folk sometimes.
Thank you all for your blog messages ... I'll have quite a lot to read out to him to-morrow. I only hope I can do them justice.

Iain