Sat 28th Feb:
Andrew has been at home for a couple of days now, and many things are familiar to him, which is good.
He does get a bit emotional when first meeting visitors or when people are kind, so if visiting please be prepared for a few tears. Also do not expect him to say too much.
We have been out for some walking exercise each day and he says that he feels better for this - it seems to help him a great deal. Today we walked up the steep incline by the Globe pub without any difficulty, and he is walking further than I expect, so regular outdoor exercise will become part of the daily routine. This can, of course include gardening/allotment.
Other elements of the daily routine include:
- playing one of his instruments ( best done with other musicians, so if anyone feels like dropping in for a "jam", you would be very welcome - some singing is especially beneficial at the moment to trying and encourage him to use his voice more, he is still whispering)
- listening to music/cd's
- cooking and normal household tasks, which we do together
-looking at the "memory book" and/or photographs
-sleep- plenty of it, whenever he gets tired, usually mid afternoon onwards
Rory came to look after Andrew for a couple of hours yesterday which enabled me to stock up with fish from the supermarket ( brain -food), make the first GP appointment and take back overdue library books ( the library were very understanding and let us off the fine!).
Next week I shall have to get to grips with finances, which I have not yet had time to investigate.
As Andrew is having particular trouble with dates I want to get a watch which shows the date and lots of calendars to put around the house, so if anyone has any unused 2009 calendars ( our current one is now useless as most of what is written in it will not now happen!). Failing that I will just have to make myself a sandwich board that I can wear all the time with the date on it. But that wouldn't be very "normal" would it....
I also need to do many thanks you's
Love Gill
xxx
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Thurs 26th February:
XXXX ANDREW IS HOME XXXXX
Went into the hospital this morning to meet the consultant on his round and was told that Andrew could come home today so we packed up and had left by 1pm.
Andrew is sitting next to me now.
We will have a quiet few days so that he can adjust to being back at home, as it's all a bit overwhelming at the moment (he is correcting my spelling as I go through this - just had to put the apostrophe in it's ).
I think we will wind up the calendar now. If you would like to see us at home sometime that would be very nice. Please ring 01525 371248.
I will also not be updating the blog so often - maybe only once or twice a week.
We have lots and lots of people to thank starting with the paramedic and ambulance crew who turned out in the snow; the wonderful staff at the L&D - we have learnt that we were lucky that Andrew landed up in the L&D because they have a dedicated stroke unit and are rated highly on this; it is certainly very clean and the staff have been very professional, supportive and kind.
To all the family and friends and neighbours who have helped and me and all the people who have sent cards ( we have about 50!), and all the emails and texts and messages from friends near and far: thank you all so very very much from us both.
love
Gill & Andrew
xxxxxx
XXXX ANDREW IS HOME XXXXX
Went into the hospital this morning to meet the consultant on his round and was told that Andrew could come home today so we packed up and had left by 1pm.
Andrew is sitting next to me now.
We will have a quiet few days so that he can adjust to being back at home, as it's all a bit overwhelming at the moment (he is correcting my spelling as I go through this - just had to put the apostrophe in it's ).
I think we will wind up the calendar now. If you would like to see us at home sometime that would be very nice. Please ring 01525 371248.
I will also not be updating the blog so often - maybe only once or twice a week.
We have lots and lots of people to thank starting with the paramedic and ambulance crew who turned out in the snow; the wonderful staff at the L&D - we have learnt that we were lucky that Andrew landed up in the L&D because they have a dedicated stroke unit and are rated highly on this; it is certainly very clean and the staff have been very professional, supportive and kind.
To all the family and friends and neighbours who have helped and me and all the people who have sent cards ( we have about 50!), and all the emails and texts and messages from friends near and far: thank you all so very very much from us both.
love
Gill & Andrew
xxxxxx
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Wed 25th:
The home visit went ahead today as planned and was very successful; Andrew remembered everything about the house except for one room which we had started doing up just before he was taken ill. He recognised 3 neighbours; he did not want to go back to the hospital.
He has started getting a bit upset today as he has realising more of what has happened and where he is, so as a partially diversionary tactic, I organised a little trip to the restaurant at the hospital for a cup of tea this afternoon, where we sat for a while looking at the M1(!) and doing some getting of bearings ( south that way, we are facing east etc).. It is part of getting back to normal life, and while I have been answering the same questions over and over again, they are the logical sort of questions that you would ask if you had just come round after a couple of weeks sleep!
It is now somewhere beetween 2001-2012, quite often 2009; Gordon Brown is the prime minister and Barack Obama is president of the US, so we have come quite along way.
There is talk of a discharge, dependent upon the senior consultant visit romorrow. There is no need for a further MRI, the CT scan last week revealed that there was no damage to the artery wall ( he had just come back from holiday and had not seen the CT scan results when he came round and spoke to me on Monday.) The cause is still a mystery. The occupational therapist said that they had been researching recovery of patients with clots in the basilar artery and there wasn't much "because so few survive" so we have been very lucky.
I too am of the opinion that Andrew would be better off home now, and hope this will be before the weekend.
Love to you all
Gill
The home visit went ahead today as planned and was very successful; Andrew remembered everything about the house except for one room which we had started doing up just before he was taken ill. He recognised 3 neighbours; he did not want to go back to the hospital.
He has started getting a bit upset today as he has realising more of what has happened and where he is, so as a partially diversionary tactic, I organised a little trip to the restaurant at the hospital for a cup of tea this afternoon, where we sat for a while looking at the M1(!) and doing some getting of bearings ( south that way, we are facing east etc).. It is part of getting back to normal life, and while I have been answering the same questions over and over again, they are the logical sort of questions that you would ask if you had just come round after a couple of weeks sleep!
It is now somewhere beetween 2001-2012, quite often 2009; Gordon Brown is the prime minister and Barack Obama is president of the US, so we have come quite along way.
There is talk of a discharge, dependent upon the senior consultant visit romorrow. There is no need for a further MRI, the CT scan last week revealed that there was no damage to the artery wall ( he had just come back from holiday and had not seen the CT scan results when he came round and spoke to me on Monday.) The cause is still a mystery. The occupational therapist said that they had been researching recovery of patients with clots in the basilar artery and there wasn't much "because so few survive" so we have been very lucky.
I too am of the opinion that Andrew would be better off home now, and hope this will be before the weekend.
Love to you all
Gill
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Tue 24th
A phone call from the occupational therapist before I left for the hospital this morning told me that there were not enough staff for the home visit today. This was a bit disappointing. It has been re-arranged for tomorrow morning, 11am, but I am not getting my hopes up too much as it is in the way of these things for the times to change. If you were planning to visit tomorrow Wednesday, 25th I would advise against it and have already contacted Doreen & Martyna who were scheduled for visits.
As a consequence we have had a very quiet day. Andrew has spent a lot of time asking questions about how he comes to be where he is, and he is starting to make some sense of things (as much as you can in a stroke ward, which gets a little surreal at times), and to remember them for a little longer. Peter Flint visited tonight and we went to the dayroom with the guitar and the music books and sang a few songs.
As he is calmer now and has been looking longingly at the TV of the patient opposite, I have purchased a viewing card and we have done some watching of daytime TV, which is more challenging when you can't remember some of the cultural references.
The chosen programme was Alan Titchmarch's chat show. First of all I had to explain who AT was. Then I had to explain why Ken Livingstone was on it and who the current mayor of London is ( he retained the information that it was Boris Johnson well into the evening). Then I had in fill him in on why they were having the discussion about "alternative oscars " and the phenomenon of the film Mamma Mia. We also watched the news and Andrew appeared to know what the credit crunch was ( well he said he did). Tonight I have left him watching the Arsenal v Roma football match.
The TV is also a combined computer ( not yet ready for this I think) and telephone. This means it is possible to ring him at his bedside. I may try this tomorrow morning before I go in as he starts to worry and start asking staff when I am coming in. Also his voice is just about loud enough now to be heard. Will let you know if it has been a success.
A phone call from the occupational therapist before I left for the hospital this morning told me that there were not enough staff for the home visit today. This was a bit disappointing. It has been re-arranged for tomorrow morning, 11am, but I am not getting my hopes up too much as it is in the way of these things for the times to change. If you were planning to visit tomorrow Wednesday, 25th I would advise against it and have already contacted Doreen & Martyna who were scheduled for visits.
As a consequence we have had a very quiet day. Andrew has spent a lot of time asking questions about how he comes to be where he is, and he is starting to make some sense of things (as much as you can in a stroke ward, which gets a little surreal at times), and to remember them for a little longer. Peter Flint visited tonight and we went to the dayroom with the guitar and the music books and sang a few songs.
As he is calmer now and has been looking longingly at the TV of the patient opposite, I have purchased a viewing card and we have done some watching of daytime TV, which is more challenging when you can't remember some of the cultural references.
The chosen programme was Alan Titchmarch's chat show. First of all I had to explain who AT was. Then I had to explain why Ken Livingstone was on it and who the current mayor of London is ( he retained the information that it was Boris Johnson well into the evening). Then I had in fill him in on why they were having the discussion about "alternative oscars " and the phenomenon of the film Mamma Mia. We also watched the news and Andrew appeared to know what the credit crunch was ( well he said he did). Tonight I have left him watching the Arsenal v Roma football match.
The TV is also a combined computer ( not yet ready for this I think) and telephone. This means it is possible to ring him at his bedside. I may try this tomorrow morning before I go in as he starts to worry and start asking staff when I am coming in. Also his voice is just about loud enough now to be heard. Will let you know if it has been a success.
Monday, 23 February 2009
Mon 23rd:
Andrew has had a very good day.
Before I arrived, he had been visited by Dave Miller and Ali Heywood; on arrival he said he was confused which is a good sign, and we went through the usual stuff about why he was confused etc.
Neighbour Carol last week gave me some magazines, one of which is "Hello" magazine which has a huge feature on the Barack Obama inauguration. I decided to see how much Andrew could remember of this, so I showed him the cover , which shows Barack Obama dancing with his wife, and hiding the words ( because he cheats). He immediately identified him correctly, and said he was "president elect" of the united states. I took this as a very good sign, as this is a very recent occurrence. I then showed him pictures of the inauguration, which he did not remember, but he did identify the following people in the rest of the article:
- Joe Byden ( and I can't identify him!)
- Sarah Palin ( but he couldn't remember the pitbull/lipstick thing)
- Bill & Hilary Clinton
- Arnold Schwarzenegger ( might not have spelt that correctly!)
- Leonardo di Caprio
- Mariah Carey
- Aretha Franklin
In the rest of the magazine, he also identified the Beckhams ( I suppose that was inevitable)
During the afternoon he was visited by ex-Music Sales colleague Hilary with her little daugther Lydia and we went to the dayroom with the guitar and assorted percussion instruments which Hilary had brought in. We sang baa baa black sheep, old macdonald had a farm and twinkle twinkle little star. Lydia then decided she didn't want to do that any more, so we turned to some of the music sales song books that Hilary had also brought in and did all 9 verses of "Where do you go to my lovely" before we were displaced from the dayroom by a patient who had to be assessed.
The consultants came round quite late today; well into visiting time when the next visitor - cousin Marian - arrived. The main consultant looking after Andrew- Dr Sekaran - seeing that Andrew had the map open brought in by Sue last week, asked him where Cardiff and Birmingham were, which he identified correctly. He did a test for peripheral vision (OK) and said that Andrew is to have another MRI to see if there is any tear in the artery before he goes home. He hopes that he may be able to go home from around thursday this week! The TOE test will be later, after he is home. When he is home he is to rest and not do much.
Andrew played "pop trivia" with Marian and later with Chris , and did very well with both.
Tomorrow is the 1-hr home visit, which we are both looking forward to.
I have received more food parcels today, thank you.
Love Gill
xx
Andrew has had a very good day.
Before I arrived, he had been visited by Dave Miller and Ali Heywood; on arrival he said he was confused which is a good sign, and we went through the usual stuff about why he was confused etc.
Neighbour Carol last week gave me some magazines, one of which is "Hello" magazine which has a huge feature on the Barack Obama inauguration. I decided to see how much Andrew could remember of this, so I showed him the cover , which shows Barack Obama dancing with his wife, and hiding the words ( because he cheats). He immediately identified him correctly, and said he was "president elect" of the united states. I took this as a very good sign, as this is a very recent occurrence. I then showed him pictures of the inauguration, which he did not remember, but he did identify the following people in the rest of the article:
- Joe Byden ( and I can't identify him!)
- Sarah Palin ( but he couldn't remember the pitbull/lipstick thing)
- Bill & Hilary Clinton
- Arnold Schwarzenegger ( might not have spelt that correctly!)
- Leonardo di Caprio
- Mariah Carey
- Aretha Franklin
In the rest of the magazine, he also identified the Beckhams ( I suppose that was inevitable)
During the afternoon he was visited by ex-Music Sales colleague Hilary with her little daugther Lydia and we went to the dayroom with the guitar and assorted percussion instruments which Hilary had brought in. We sang baa baa black sheep, old macdonald had a farm and twinkle twinkle little star. Lydia then decided she didn't want to do that any more, so we turned to some of the music sales song books that Hilary had also brought in and did all 9 verses of "Where do you go to my lovely" before we were displaced from the dayroom by a patient who had to be assessed.
The consultants came round quite late today; well into visiting time when the next visitor - cousin Marian - arrived. The main consultant looking after Andrew- Dr Sekaran - seeing that Andrew had the map open brought in by Sue last week, asked him where Cardiff and Birmingham were, which he identified correctly. He did a test for peripheral vision (OK) and said that Andrew is to have another MRI to see if there is any tear in the artery before he goes home. He hopes that he may be able to go home from around thursday this week! The TOE test will be later, after he is home. When he is home he is to rest and not do much.
Andrew played "pop trivia" with Marian and later with Chris , and did very well with both.
Tomorrow is the 1-hr home visit, which we are both looking forward to.
I have received more food parcels today, thank you.
Love Gill
xx
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Sun 22nd
Andrew has been looking quite bright and alert all day and has been asking lots of questions about where he is, what is wrong with him, how long he has got, when is he going home, what the date is, how old he is. As the short term memory is quite poor, I have had to give the answers many times. Still I feel this is quite a good sign, and he does manage to follow the thread of a conversation for around 15 mins. I have tried to cut down the amount of "stuff" about to enable him to concentrate on one thing at a time, as he keeps trying to make spurious connections between things which is a waste of his time.
He often says he is confused, which is good because I can deal with it. In fact he made a joke about this tonight which is a little bit rude so I'm not going to put it here!
Andrew is convinced that he knows everyone else in the ward particularly a relative who comes to visit the man in the bed diagonally opposite; he believes that she is "Linda". He had the same conviction yesterday when Rory and Doreen were there and Doreen did actually ask said lady to introduce herself. Her name is Sue.
Eusebio is now the not-so-angry-scotsman in the next bed.
Highlight of the day was a visit from ex- Music Sales colleagues Frank and Chris with guitar; rock and roll in the dayroom.
Although Andrew cannot remember who has visited him prior to today ( sorry all visitors!), he has recognised over 90% over visitors at the time they arrive. I have had to tell him who has been in, and he has said that he would like to have more visitors "especially pretty ones". I have not taken this too well.
Food notes: Andrew is definitely no longer vegetarian, and seems to have developed a particular liking for pork pies. He is also eating other stuff that he would not touch before, like oranges and chocolate blancmange. He is now eating food in the right order, e.g. soup before main course before pudding. And he is eating quite a lot.
I feel a need to have a tidy-up in the house before Tuesday when the home visit is planned.
Many thanks for the cards, flowers and messages that continue to arrive
Gill
Andrew has been looking quite bright and alert all day and has been asking lots of questions about where he is, what is wrong with him, how long he has got, when is he going home, what the date is, how old he is. As the short term memory is quite poor, I have had to give the answers many times. Still I feel this is quite a good sign, and he does manage to follow the thread of a conversation for around 15 mins. I have tried to cut down the amount of "stuff" about to enable him to concentrate on one thing at a time, as he keeps trying to make spurious connections between things which is a waste of his time.
He often says he is confused, which is good because I can deal with it. In fact he made a joke about this tonight which is a little bit rude so I'm not going to put it here!
Andrew is convinced that he knows everyone else in the ward particularly a relative who comes to visit the man in the bed diagonally opposite; he believes that she is "Linda". He had the same conviction yesterday when Rory and Doreen were there and Doreen did actually ask said lady to introduce herself. Her name is Sue.
Eusebio is now the not-so-angry-scotsman in the next bed.
Highlight of the day was a visit from ex- Music Sales colleagues Frank and Chris with guitar; rock and roll in the dayroom.
Although Andrew cannot remember who has visited him prior to today ( sorry all visitors!), he has recognised over 90% over visitors at the time they arrive. I have had to tell him who has been in, and he has said that he would like to have more visitors "especially pretty ones". I have not taken this too well.
Food notes: Andrew is definitely no longer vegetarian, and seems to have developed a particular liking for pork pies. He is also eating other stuff that he would not touch before, like oranges and chocolate blancmange. He is now eating food in the right order, e.g. soup before main course before pudding. And he is eating quite a lot.
I feel a need to have a tidy-up in the house before Tuesday when the home visit is planned.
Many thanks for the cards, flowers and messages that continue to arrive
Gill
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Sat 21st:
A fairly quiet day, Andrew has been getting quite a lot of rest after the excitements of the last two days when he has been up for long periods. He did spend around three hours in the dayroom this morning; we did various things, memory book, some yoga, played snakes and ladders which he did almost 100% competently ( I think he miscounted once) and then said what was the point of that? We moved onto hangman, had lunch, Chris arrived with guitar and then he got a bit tired and we took him to bed where he has been the rest of the day, resting but not always asleep, listening to CD's, talking to Rory and Doreen for a while.
I am not tolerating any non-verbal signals but insisting that he talks. This gives much better understanding e.g. he says "I'm confused " or "I'm not sure what's real and what isn't", even "am I dying?" at one point. All of these are understandable and enable us to respond accordingly with reassurance and explanation. I am learning to avoid magazines, newspapers and the telly because they have just too much info, and he trys to make non-existent connections.
Hospital is an unfamiliar environment and I do have to start from basics each day telling him where he is, why he is there etc., checking his age (if it is low as it was today, its a sign of insecurity, I believe). However, there are real improvements on a week ago and I think we just have to take things steady, make sure he concentrates on one topic at a time, and address all the issues as they come up.
love
Gill
xx
A fairly quiet day, Andrew has been getting quite a lot of rest after the excitements of the last two days when he has been up for long periods. He did spend around three hours in the dayroom this morning; we did various things, memory book, some yoga, played snakes and ladders which he did almost 100% competently ( I think he miscounted once) and then said what was the point of that? We moved onto hangman, had lunch, Chris arrived with guitar and then he got a bit tired and we took him to bed where he has been the rest of the day, resting but not always asleep, listening to CD's, talking to Rory and Doreen for a while.
I am not tolerating any non-verbal signals but insisting that he talks. This gives much better understanding e.g. he says "I'm confused " or "I'm not sure what's real and what isn't", even "am I dying?" at one point. All of these are understandable and enable us to respond accordingly with reassurance and explanation. I am learning to avoid magazines, newspapers and the telly because they have just too much info, and he trys to make non-existent connections.
Hospital is an unfamiliar environment and I do have to start from basics each day telling him where he is, why he is there etc., checking his age (if it is low as it was today, its a sign of insecurity, I believe). However, there are real improvements on a week ago and I think we just have to take things steady, make sure he concentrates on one topic at a time, and address all the issues as they come up.
love
Gill
xx
Friday, 20 February 2009
Friday 20th
*****************GOOD NEWS DAY!!!!!!!************************
The clot has gone!
Had a long chat with consultant ( well 15 mins is long) and discovered that CT scan on Wednesday showed that the 9mm clot in the basilar artery has gone and the blood is flowing freely. First I had heard about 9mm, sounds a bit big, but I'm not going to think about that anymore.
Consultant also said:
- Andrew is lucky, many people don't survive brain stem infarct in first 48 hours
- that people who make good progress in first couple of weeks stand a better chance of a good recovery and he has been doing well.
-that the music, memory book etc that I have been encouraging has probably helped
- that he has noticed that I have been there a lot (!)
- that we should have a holiday somewhere warm when Andrew that is a bit better; he suggested Cyprus
-that the 3 drugs he is taking are aspirin, statin, and Plavix (= clopidogrel not whatever I wrote in the earlier blog, which is a pain killing drug) and that it is unlikely that a clot will form now
- that the urgency for the TOE test is no longer there as they do not think this is a clot that has moved from elsewhere; they may do a TOE test during rehab. This is after consultation with Harefield
- that the lumbar puncture was to test for herpes simplex in particular, which can cause stroke; it was totally clear, but he as he has had acyclovir for this since he arrived which would have attacked this anyway
-that they still do not know why the clot formed but sometimes this does just happen and no cause is found. Dehydration, cold and other factors can encourage thickening of the blood which lead to stroke. After this I went and bought a bottle of water !
- that he is still to see a neurologist from the L&D and a cardiologist who spends two weeks each month in Sweden ( yes, really) and two weeks at the L&D. This will be next week.
- that there will be a HOME VISIT of 1 hr next Tuesday, booked for 1.30pm, with the occupational therapist and a physiotherapist. They will bring him home in a taxi, and see how he copes and then take him back. Andrew is very much looking forward to this. Tuesday therefore to be kept clear in the visiting calendar.
Andrew has had another very good day; Lucy went in early on the bus and occupied Andrew, supervising meal etc till I got there about 2.30 and doing quite a lot with the memory book. He is now overestimating the date and at one point has said it is 2012. He has also recognised pictures of our allotment and rooms in our house without prompting. He has re-read all his cards ( he couldn't remember reading them the first time); listened to one of Lucy's CD's and had happy visits from Chloe and Martyna, the latter visit including a little guitar playing, but as it was quite late this did not last too long. He now has so many CDs that I am having to take some home, so if you were thinking of sending any, it might be better to wait until he comes home or deliver them to me. There are about 30 at the hospital, and he only listens to 1 or 2 a day.
The other interest of the day was map-reading. Lucy got out the map that my sister bought yesterday and he immediately identified where Leighton Buzzard was and traced the route to where his family live in Norfolk easily. He has spent some while looking at the map.
I hope that this cheers you all up as much as it has done Lucy and myself
Lots of love
Gill
*****************GOOD NEWS DAY!!!!!!!************************
The clot has gone!
Had a long chat with consultant ( well 15 mins is long) and discovered that CT scan on Wednesday showed that the 9mm clot in the basilar artery has gone and the blood is flowing freely. First I had heard about 9mm, sounds a bit big, but I'm not going to think about that anymore.
Consultant also said:
- Andrew is lucky, many people don't survive brain stem infarct in first 48 hours
- that people who make good progress in first couple of weeks stand a better chance of a good recovery and he has been doing well.
-that the music, memory book etc that I have been encouraging has probably helped
- that he has noticed that I have been there a lot (!)
- that we should have a holiday somewhere warm when Andrew that is a bit better; he suggested Cyprus
-that the 3 drugs he is taking are aspirin, statin, and Plavix (= clopidogrel not whatever I wrote in the earlier blog, which is a pain killing drug) and that it is unlikely that a clot will form now
- that the urgency for the TOE test is no longer there as they do not think this is a clot that has moved from elsewhere; they may do a TOE test during rehab. This is after consultation with Harefield
- that the lumbar puncture was to test for herpes simplex in particular, which can cause stroke; it was totally clear, but he as he has had acyclovir for this since he arrived which would have attacked this anyway
-that they still do not know why the clot formed but sometimes this does just happen and no cause is found. Dehydration, cold and other factors can encourage thickening of the blood which lead to stroke. After this I went and bought a bottle of water !
- that he is still to see a neurologist from the L&D and a cardiologist who spends two weeks each month in Sweden ( yes, really) and two weeks at the L&D. This will be next week.
- that there will be a HOME VISIT of 1 hr next Tuesday, booked for 1.30pm, with the occupational therapist and a physiotherapist. They will bring him home in a taxi, and see how he copes and then take him back. Andrew is very much looking forward to this. Tuesday therefore to be kept clear in the visiting calendar.
Andrew has had another very good day; Lucy went in early on the bus and occupied Andrew, supervising meal etc till I got there about 2.30 and doing quite a lot with the memory book. He is now overestimating the date and at one point has said it is 2012. He has also recognised pictures of our allotment and rooms in our house without prompting. He has re-read all his cards ( he couldn't remember reading them the first time); listened to one of Lucy's CD's and had happy visits from Chloe and Martyna, the latter visit including a little guitar playing, but as it was quite late this did not last too long. He now has so many CDs that I am having to take some home, so if you were thinking of sending any, it might be better to wait until he comes home or deliver them to me. There are about 30 at the hospital, and he only listens to 1 or 2 a day.
The other interest of the day was map-reading. Lucy got out the map that my sister bought yesterday and he immediately identified where Leighton Buzzard was and traced the route to where his family live in Norfolk easily. He has spent some while looking at the map.
I hope that this cheers you all up as much as it has done Lucy and myself
Lots of love
Gill
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Thurs 19th:
Andrew has made very good progress today on several fronts:
He has been awake most of the day.
He has held a fairly lengthy and logical conversation of approximately half an hour. This was concerning where he was and why he was there. This started with him saying "so I've had a stroke at 52", having worked this out for himself rather than being told, and then we told him how he had got there, which he followed with logical questions, which we answered truthfully, but trying to be positive and he ended up by saying to me " you must have been very worried", to which I said "just a bit" and we left it at that. I hope we have done the right thing; he did not seem too distressed; I wonder how much will be remembered tomorrow.
He has also:
- juggled ( yes , really - with three bits of rolled up paper - he could do this before the stroke)
- played chinese chequers with Ned & Sheena ( who got to the hospital before me and kindly engaged him in some productive activity whilst I picked up Andrews niece Lucy from the station; the staff don't have time to do this, so if there is no-one there he just sits in an armchair)
- had a very calm and peaceful couple of hours with Lucy going through recent family history in logical year-by-year fashion, well organised by Lucy and so easy for him to follow. He asked about other family members and spent a little while listening to a CD that Lucy has brought in and has even started to master the CD player
- recognised my sister and brother-in-law who popped in en route to and from Milton Keynes with my nephews, even though he does not see them that often
- actually guessed that one of his visitors was older than they actually are ( I'm not going to say who this is, but all I can say is that that person doesn't look it, and that if you want to be aged younger you had better get in quick)
- has been ageing himself at 50 or 52 ( see above)
- remembered to take his slippers off before getting into bed without being prompted, and has started to put them on when getting out of bed without being prompted either
- has started to use his voice much better and to talk rather than nodding or making faces. I did actually tell him directly to "speak what he wanted to say" something rather than nod and this brought about an immediate improvement; the voice is louder too.
He has had quite a few visitors this evening, and after tea I suppose that you could say that he and his friend Chris gave a sort of half hour mini-concert to the assembled audience in the dayroom consisting of my sister's family, Bob, Lucy and myself, which was very good.
There does not appear to have been much happening on the tests /medical front today.
Lucy is staying with me for a couple of days and this together with the progress that Andrew is making has made me feel much more relaxed; we even went out for something to eat on the way home, which I didn't really want to do up till now. She is going to go in early tomorrow so that I can sort out some "normal life stuff" that needs attention at home.
Lucy was going to help with the "memory book" however, that seems to have grown of its own accord in an organic but not unorganised fashion. Visitors have written things about themselves in it and put photos next to their writing; Andrew and I have done some pages together and I have written some when he has been asleep. We have abandoned the idea of re-organising it now, though Lucy does have some very good ideas involving filing cards which we may take up when we have more time. Andrew is referring to it quite a lot; the section for jokes now has 4 pages of musical jokes, no less.
I am continuing to receive lots of letters and emails with support which I really appreciate and yesterday also information about the TOE test, including an email from someone who had had two.
We still don't know who Eusebio is apart from a famous portuguese footballer and we are also puzzled by constant mention of the word "edelweiss" in many different contexts.
Today my sister purchased a map of England to help with memory of locations. ( I had drawn a map of England with some key places on it - described as "looking medieval" - and I got rather over-enthusiastic with the M1 which extends as far as Scotland, so a proper map is probably a bit more useful)
Love to you all
Gill
Andrew has made very good progress today on several fronts:
He has been awake most of the day.
He has held a fairly lengthy and logical conversation of approximately half an hour. This was concerning where he was and why he was there. This started with him saying "so I've had a stroke at 52", having worked this out for himself rather than being told, and then we told him how he had got there, which he followed with logical questions, which we answered truthfully, but trying to be positive and he ended up by saying to me " you must have been very worried", to which I said "just a bit" and we left it at that. I hope we have done the right thing; he did not seem too distressed; I wonder how much will be remembered tomorrow.
He has also:
- juggled ( yes , really - with three bits of rolled up paper - he could do this before the stroke)
- played chinese chequers with Ned & Sheena ( who got to the hospital before me and kindly engaged him in some productive activity whilst I picked up Andrews niece Lucy from the station; the staff don't have time to do this, so if there is no-one there he just sits in an armchair)
- had a very calm and peaceful couple of hours with Lucy going through recent family history in logical year-by-year fashion, well organised by Lucy and so easy for him to follow. He asked about other family members and spent a little while listening to a CD that Lucy has brought in and has even started to master the CD player
- recognised my sister and brother-in-law who popped in en route to and from Milton Keynes with my nephews, even though he does not see them that often
- actually guessed that one of his visitors was older than they actually are ( I'm not going to say who this is, but all I can say is that that person doesn't look it, and that if you want to be aged younger you had better get in quick)
- has been ageing himself at 50 or 52 ( see above)
- remembered to take his slippers off before getting into bed without being prompted, and has started to put them on when getting out of bed without being prompted either
- has started to use his voice much better and to talk rather than nodding or making faces. I did actually tell him directly to "speak what he wanted to say" something rather than nod and this brought about an immediate improvement; the voice is louder too.
He has had quite a few visitors this evening, and after tea I suppose that you could say that he and his friend Chris gave a sort of half hour mini-concert to the assembled audience in the dayroom consisting of my sister's family, Bob, Lucy and myself, which was very good.
There does not appear to have been much happening on the tests /medical front today.
Lucy is staying with me for a couple of days and this together with the progress that Andrew is making has made me feel much more relaxed; we even went out for something to eat on the way home, which I didn't really want to do up till now. She is going to go in early tomorrow so that I can sort out some "normal life stuff" that needs attention at home.
Lucy was going to help with the "memory book" however, that seems to have grown of its own accord in an organic but not unorganised fashion. Visitors have written things about themselves in it and put photos next to their writing; Andrew and I have done some pages together and I have written some when he has been asleep. We have abandoned the idea of re-organising it now, though Lucy does have some very good ideas involving filing cards which we may take up when we have more time. Andrew is referring to it quite a lot; the section for jokes now has 4 pages of musical jokes, no less.
I am continuing to receive lots of letters and emails with support which I really appreciate and yesterday also information about the TOE test, including an email from someone who had had two.
We still don't know who Eusebio is apart from a famous portuguese footballer and we are also puzzled by constant mention of the word "edelweiss" in many different contexts.
Today my sister purchased a map of England to help with memory of locations. ( I had drawn a map of England with some key places on it - described as "looking medieval" - and I got rather over-enthusiastic with the M1 which extends as far as Scotland, so a proper map is probably a bit more useful)
Love to you all
Gill
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Wed 18th:
Found Andrew in someone else's armchair this morning but no-one seemed to mind.
Met the speech therapist who advised that he drink plenty of water to keep his throat moist in dry hospital conditions and that he takes a deep breath in before he tries to speak. After she had gone we tried some yoga exercises - 9 - pacifying breaths - and some "oms" - which did seem to help. Visitors think his voice a little stronger tonight. One of the visitors was Pauline, who does singing lessons and I immediately asked her to do a little singing exercise with Andrew to try and help.
I am not happy that he has not had an MRI but a CT scan. The consultant does not know why this is so either; an MRI was requested. The canula was still in when I went home and I asked staff to remove it if it was no longer needed as it is clearly annoying Andrew , though he has managed to play guitar with it in his hand tonight.
It does not look as if he is going to Harefield but will have the TOE next Tuesday when the cardiologist with the equipment visits. This is to see if there is a clot in the heart. Apparently it rarely does but as they are having difficulty with diagnosis its one more thing they must check.
Apart from the CT Andrew has been in a good mood all day and spent a considerable amount of time listening to the CD that Bob compiled which he listened to calmly all the way through, crossing out the notes that Bob had made and numbering the tracks. We also spent a fair amount of time on the memory book. Establishing age today 23.
I also managed to park the car under the window of the dayroom so that he could see it and make a connection with the outside world.
Quite a lot of vsiitors today including Sean and children, Paul, Glenn, Pauline, Doreen, Chris , Peter. People have asked me about the number of people visiting and what I think about it is quite complex and roughly as follows:
- big or small groups of musicians are OK because Andrew can play or sing along and feels included and happy ( so long as the dayroom is free, of course) I think it is good for him to have an hour or two playing each day, and want to encourage it, especially exercises and singing to strengthen the voice.
- I think it is better to only have 1 or two people around the bed, though, and better to have a 1-1 chat with him if there is no music is involved. Please be aware that short-term and longer term memory are poor, and therefore easy for him to feel excluded in a three-way conversation. Its best to pick one or two topics and stick to them ( maybe something that you have brought in or a particular memory) rather than a wide ranging conversation which is hard to follow. Some short simple jokes are nice, too. Please write jokes in the "Jokes" section of the memory book. He has managed to recall the punch line to the duck/soul singer one today, so I might not be able to get away with that anymore! Alternately, a simple game - Chris tried noughts and crosses today which went down well - is quite nice if you have the time.
Bob/Jane - lentil salad very nice!
Lots of nice letters and cards are still arriving. I can't keep them al at the hospital as there isn't room, so there is quite a collection at home now. Thank you also to everyone who has written with words of encouragement for me personally.
Gill
xx
Found Andrew in someone else's armchair this morning but no-one seemed to mind.
Met the speech therapist who advised that he drink plenty of water to keep his throat moist in dry hospital conditions and that he takes a deep breath in before he tries to speak. After she had gone we tried some yoga exercises - 9 - pacifying breaths - and some "oms" - which did seem to help. Visitors think his voice a little stronger tonight. One of the visitors was Pauline, who does singing lessons and I immediately asked her to do a little singing exercise with Andrew to try and help.
I am not happy that he has not had an MRI but a CT scan. The consultant does not know why this is so either; an MRI was requested. The canula was still in when I went home and I asked staff to remove it if it was no longer needed as it is clearly annoying Andrew , though he has managed to play guitar with it in his hand tonight.
It does not look as if he is going to Harefield but will have the TOE next Tuesday when the cardiologist with the equipment visits. This is to see if there is a clot in the heart. Apparently it rarely does but as they are having difficulty with diagnosis its one more thing they must check.
Apart from the CT Andrew has been in a good mood all day and spent a considerable amount of time listening to the CD that Bob compiled which he listened to calmly all the way through, crossing out the notes that Bob had made and numbering the tracks. We also spent a fair amount of time on the memory book. Establishing age today 23.
I also managed to park the car under the window of the dayroom so that he could see it and make a connection with the outside world.
Quite a lot of vsiitors today including Sean and children, Paul, Glenn, Pauline, Doreen, Chris , Peter. People have asked me about the number of people visiting and what I think about it is quite complex and roughly as follows:
- big or small groups of musicians are OK because Andrew can play or sing along and feels included and happy ( so long as the dayroom is free, of course) I think it is good for him to have an hour or two playing each day, and want to encourage it, especially exercises and singing to strengthen the voice.
- I think it is better to only have 1 or two people around the bed, though, and better to have a 1-1 chat with him if there is no music is involved. Please be aware that short-term and longer term memory are poor, and therefore easy for him to feel excluded in a three-way conversation. Its best to pick one or two topics and stick to them ( maybe something that you have brought in or a particular memory) rather than a wide ranging conversation which is hard to follow. Some short simple jokes are nice, too. Please write jokes in the "Jokes" section of the memory book. He has managed to recall the punch line to the duck/soul singer one today, so I might not be able to get away with that anymore! Alternately, a simple game - Chris tried noughts and crosses today which went down well - is quite nice if you have the time.
Bob/Jane - lentil salad very nice!
Lots of nice letters and cards are still arriving. I can't keep them al at the hospital as there isn't room, so there is quite a collection at home now. Thank you also to everyone who has written with words of encouragement for me personally.
Gill
xx
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Tues 17th:
Andrew grumpy this morning on arrival something to do with wanting another pair of headphones and claiming that there were tricks. Also refused to go to day room. Rory says this is a good sign. Establishing question revealed he was 26, good, this is an improvement.
I was also grumpy because he had caused trouble by pulling the canula for his MRI out. This had to be reconnected to his hand after lunch in preparation for the 2nd attempt at the scan. The reconnection caused him much distress, but he forgot this after about 10 mins. In the event they ran out of time, and he has been reslotted in for tomorrow, 1.40pm. I am to go with him to provide reassurance and must not have anything metal about me. Chances of keeping canula in overnight I put at less than 50% so we may have to go thro' it all again tomorrow. I have continully nagged all afternoon about leaving the canula alone, and at one point someone suggested enclosing the hand in a large oven mitt!
The angry scotsman has turned out to be really only angry with his son, who came back for another earbashing today. He is quite reasonable with everyone else and tonight asked me if I would buy him some slippers. Ken , the lovely elderly man in an opposite bed has gone home ( at one rather surreal point Ken and Andrew decided that they knew each other but for completely different reasons). This has prompted Andrew to ask if he could go home, which I think is a good sign.
His post today brought around 15 cd's, including those from Lucy, Pippa, Jean and Chloe I made the mistake of allowing Andrew to open all these at once ( should have learnt from yesterday!) and the ensuing chaos plus the headphones issue ended in an argument. Thankfully you had all labelled them. He has listened to two of Pippa's and one of Lucy's. There is also a wonderful large card from London Barndance - thank you all.
There were also a quantity of pictures. This morning before going in I had got the thousands of photos out that we have, which are not well catalogued and felt quite overcome at the task of sorting them all out. Luckliy Lucy is coming to help later in the week.
Asked consultant re strange food behaviour and he said not to worry he had seen similar 2 or 3 times and it generally clears up after about 4 months recovery. Requested visits by dietician and also speech therapist as his voice is so weak. When John Howarth and his son turned up with guitar (the staff take one look at anyone with a guitar now and direct them straight to Andrew; they also pop into the dayroom and have a dance, listen or join in when they can), Andrew was not able to play due to canula in hand so I asked John if they could do some songs to encourage the voice to become stronger, and this did seem to work. In fact I did wonder later if a "memory song" might be composed which could work on both areas of difficulty. I have heard that it is easier to memorise things if you sing them. Is it too cheeky to ask if any of Andrew's songwriting friends might help put something together?
The consultant has learnt that the test he wants to have done at Harefield, which has an extremely long medical name said too quickly for me to write down but which is known by staff as a TOE (throat oesophagus echo) might be able to be done by a peripatetic cardiologist who has the equipment and who visits the hospital about once a week. I hope so.
Rory visited later and so did Chris Wilkinson. Chris supervised tea and also engaged Andrew in a game of draughts, which was about the right level of challenge.
A food parcel from Di in porch and grapes from Gill - many thanks. I consumed yesterdays food parcel from Rory at various times throughout the day.
Later, when asked what year it is Andrew hazarded that it is 2001 - after the millenium, quite pleased about that.
Once again, many thanks for all your support
Gill
xx
Andrew grumpy this morning on arrival something to do with wanting another pair of headphones and claiming that there were tricks. Also refused to go to day room. Rory says this is a good sign. Establishing question revealed he was 26, good, this is an improvement.
I was also grumpy because he had caused trouble by pulling the canula for his MRI out. This had to be reconnected to his hand after lunch in preparation for the 2nd attempt at the scan. The reconnection caused him much distress, but he forgot this after about 10 mins. In the event they ran out of time, and he has been reslotted in for tomorrow, 1.40pm. I am to go with him to provide reassurance and must not have anything metal about me. Chances of keeping canula in overnight I put at less than 50% so we may have to go thro' it all again tomorrow. I have continully nagged all afternoon about leaving the canula alone, and at one point someone suggested enclosing the hand in a large oven mitt!
The angry scotsman has turned out to be really only angry with his son, who came back for another earbashing today. He is quite reasonable with everyone else and tonight asked me if I would buy him some slippers. Ken , the lovely elderly man in an opposite bed has gone home ( at one rather surreal point Ken and Andrew decided that they knew each other but for completely different reasons). This has prompted Andrew to ask if he could go home, which I think is a good sign.
His post today brought around 15 cd's, including those from Lucy, Pippa, Jean and Chloe I made the mistake of allowing Andrew to open all these at once ( should have learnt from yesterday!) and the ensuing chaos plus the headphones issue ended in an argument. Thankfully you had all labelled them. He has listened to two of Pippa's and one of Lucy's. There is also a wonderful large card from London Barndance - thank you all.
There were also a quantity of pictures. This morning before going in I had got the thousands of photos out that we have, which are not well catalogued and felt quite overcome at the task of sorting them all out. Luckliy Lucy is coming to help later in the week.
Asked consultant re strange food behaviour and he said not to worry he had seen similar 2 or 3 times and it generally clears up after about 4 months recovery. Requested visits by dietician and also speech therapist as his voice is so weak. When John Howarth and his son turned up with guitar (the staff take one look at anyone with a guitar now and direct them straight to Andrew; they also pop into the dayroom and have a dance, listen or join in when they can), Andrew was not able to play due to canula in hand so I asked John if they could do some songs to encourage the voice to become stronger, and this did seem to work. In fact I did wonder later if a "memory song" might be composed which could work on both areas of difficulty. I have heard that it is easier to memorise things if you sing them. Is it too cheeky to ask if any of Andrew's songwriting friends might help put something together?
The consultant has learnt that the test he wants to have done at Harefield, which has an extremely long medical name said too quickly for me to write down but which is known by staff as a TOE (throat oesophagus echo) might be able to be done by a peripatetic cardiologist who has the equipment and who visits the hospital about once a week. I hope so.
Rory visited later and so did Chris Wilkinson. Chris supervised tea and also engaged Andrew in a game of draughts, which was about the right level of challenge.
A food parcel from Di in porch and grapes from Gill - many thanks. I consumed yesterdays food parcel from Rory at various times throughout the day.
Later, when asked what year it is Andrew hazarded that it is 2001 - after the millenium, quite pleased about that.
Once again, many thanks for all your support
Gill
xx
Monday, 16 February 2009
Monday 16th:
A relatively relaxed day for both Andrew & myself, which actually I think we both needed. With so much "normal life" stuff building up at home, I didn't get to the hospital till nearly 12, by which time one of the nurses was having to reassure Andrew that I would be arriving. Establishing question revealed he was 20.
We had a calm couple of hours in the dayroom with CD's and the memory book until 2.30 when a lot of the staff came in to watch a training dvd on incontinence products. They did invite us to stay, but we declined, and went back to the ward.
I have realised that it is not a good idea to give Andrew too much choice. I took around 15 cds to the dayroom and asked him to select one. He took them all out of their sleeves and muddled them up really fast. The task is too hard. Some of them don't have much written on them, and I then had to put them all back in their right places. It is better to just select one, preferably with something on the sleeve that he can follow. He has also been taking the pages out of the "memory book" and muddling them up, or writing things on them that are sometimes in the right place and sometimes not, and sometimes are just snatches of conversation. No sentence is longer than around 3 words. This he does quite swiftly. He has, however corrected my spelling where I had accidentally left an "n" out of a word.
The music session with Kev at 3pm was abandoned due to the arrival of a wheelchair to take him for an MRI scan ( about which I knew nothing). He arrived back an hour later with canula in place to insert the dye but MRI abandoned because he was too restless. They are going to try again tomorrow. It is probably too frightening, but I can hardly go in there with him. Whilst he was at the MRI, I enjoyed Sean's salad, it is really good to have proper food. Tony also turned up while he was in the MRI, and later Chris with guitar but we deemed it not a good idea to play guitar with a canula in.
Something strange has happened to his food/taste memory/sense. Tea consisted of soup & roll, salmon fishcakes & mash, and banana. I turned away for a minute and when I turned back he was dipping the peeled banana first in the soup, and then in the mash and then consuming it quite happily. I really don't know what is going on here, but, if you have been following this you will know it is not the first strange food behaviour, and I will have to investigate further.
He is also eating salad which he shunned before. In fact I think he would eat any food, probably.
Tonight we went through the memory book again, and another cd. Although there is a TV/computer screen available at each bed ( which is being watched by other patients), I don't think this is appropriate for somone who cannot remember very much. If you visit and it is on, please switch it off, and don't give in to requests for it. There is just too much choice, too much information, it is too confusing, a lot of it is information that is not useful. He presses the same buttons over and over again and cannot connect with what is appearing on the screen, or its relevance to where he is now. I am having enough trouble trying to remind him of where we live etc; I would rather keep things easy for the time being, and would prefer a cd or the memory book to be used.
The bed next to him has a new occupant, a rather angry scotsman, who is (worryingly) ambulant and who had a rather heated exchange with his son this afternoon. I am trying to forget this, as I expect the son is.
One of the upsides to this situation is that one needs relatively few jokes ( there are 3 written in the memory book) and that I can remember them better than he can and that they are always funny, because he forgot that he was told it a little while ago. Therefore the "Q. how do you make a duck into a soul singer? A. put it into an oven until its bill withers" could go on for some time...
More food parcels in the porch - thank you Rory and more jogging pants..thank you Jean!
Still don't know when Harefield visit is as he has to be referred by the L&D's cardiologist.
Gill
xx
A relatively relaxed day for both Andrew & myself, which actually I think we both needed. With so much "normal life" stuff building up at home, I didn't get to the hospital till nearly 12, by which time one of the nurses was having to reassure Andrew that I would be arriving. Establishing question revealed he was 20.
We had a calm couple of hours in the dayroom with CD's and the memory book until 2.30 when a lot of the staff came in to watch a training dvd on incontinence products. They did invite us to stay, but we declined, and went back to the ward.
I have realised that it is not a good idea to give Andrew too much choice. I took around 15 cds to the dayroom and asked him to select one. He took them all out of their sleeves and muddled them up really fast. The task is too hard. Some of them don't have much written on them, and I then had to put them all back in their right places. It is better to just select one, preferably with something on the sleeve that he can follow. He has also been taking the pages out of the "memory book" and muddling them up, or writing things on them that are sometimes in the right place and sometimes not, and sometimes are just snatches of conversation. No sentence is longer than around 3 words. This he does quite swiftly. He has, however corrected my spelling where I had accidentally left an "n" out of a word.
The music session with Kev at 3pm was abandoned due to the arrival of a wheelchair to take him for an MRI scan ( about which I knew nothing). He arrived back an hour later with canula in place to insert the dye but MRI abandoned because he was too restless. They are going to try again tomorrow. It is probably too frightening, but I can hardly go in there with him. Whilst he was at the MRI, I enjoyed Sean's salad, it is really good to have proper food. Tony also turned up while he was in the MRI, and later Chris with guitar but we deemed it not a good idea to play guitar with a canula in.
Something strange has happened to his food/taste memory/sense. Tea consisted of soup & roll, salmon fishcakes & mash, and banana. I turned away for a minute and when I turned back he was dipping the peeled banana first in the soup, and then in the mash and then consuming it quite happily. I really don't know what is going on here, but, if you have been following this you will know it is not the first strange food behaviour, and I will have to investigate further.
He is also eating salad which he shunned before. In fact I think he would eat any food, probably.
Tonight we went through the memory book again, and another cd. Although there is a TV/computer screen available at each bed ( which is being watched by other patients), I don't think this is appropriate for somone who cannot remember very much. If you visit and it is on, please switch it off, and don't give in to requests for it. There is just too much choice, too much information, it is too confusing, a lot of it is information that is not useful. He presses the same buttons over and over again and cannot connect with what is appearing on the screen, or its relevance to where he is now. I am having enough trouble trying to remind him of where we live etc; I would rather keep things easy for the time being, and would prefer a cd or the memory book to be used.
The bed next to him has a new occupant, a rather angry scotsman, who is (worryingly) ambulant and who had a rather heated exchange with his son this afternoon. I am trying to forget this, as I expect the son is.
One of the upsides to this situation is that one needs relatively few jokes ( there are 3 written in the memory book) and that I can remember them better than he can and that they are always funny, because he forgot that he was told it a little while ago. Therefore the "Q. how do you make a duck into a soul singer? A. put it into an oven until its bill withers" could go on for some time...
More food parcels in the porch - thank you Rory and more jogging pants..thank you Jean!
Still don't know when Harefield visit is as he has to be referred by the L&D's cardiologist.
Gill
xx
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Sun 15th:
Its alright for you mate... is a rather uncharitable thought I have had several times today.
I arrived around 10 to find him asleep in his armchair, with memory book on his lap.. On awakening about an hour later he declined to answer my all establishing questions (who am I, how old are you etc) which he finds difficult, except one - where are you - to which he said hospital, eusebio ward. hmm. Eusebio has been mentioned several times, also in the context of a sandwich bar, so if anyone can make the connection here, please let me know!
A little later most of Stomp turned up to see him and we took over the dayroom, which isn't occupied much at that time of day and is reasonably soundproof, and played a number of tunes - sort of a rehearsal really! I think this is all just an excuse for him to play music with his mates every day, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with his musical abilities whatsoever. He did difficult rhythm clapping, played guitar and bass and also attempted a little singing though his voice is weak and will need working on.
A 3 course lunch was served to him in the dayroom; he then declared himself tired and went for a two-hour kip before receiving his visitors. These were: Ruth and Adam from cambridge with baby daugther Ella, with whom he was much entranced; Jean and Christine (sorry about him nicking your pencil Jean) ; then Caroline and Joan. The latter 4 visitors brought him cds and he now has quite a few photos for his memory book.
He ate a huge tea, languidly whilst wearing headphones and listening to his cds.
I, meanwhile, have red hands from constant washing and disinfection routines and have turned into a grumpy nagging wife barking out repeated commands: slippers! soap! don't go in there! don't do that! stop playing with the emergency button!, concentrate! etcetc...you get the idea.
Hannah, your pasta was much appreciated, I ate it for lunch. Alison, thank you for the food in the porch tonight. Sean has just phoned to say he is popping round with some salads for tomorrow. This is amazing.
On the medical side the consultant is to send him to Harefield this week for special cardiac tests that the L&D doesn't have. I can go with him. When the appointment is booked, I will put it on the blog & calendar so that people don't turn up when he isn't there. They are still puzzled as to a) why he doesn't have many of the outward symptoms of a brain stem infarct, even though he clearly has one, from the scans and b) what the underlying cause of this is in the first place. The consultant today said that they wanted to look "behind the heart".
All - please don't put this blog on any public websites - its just for family and friends and people that will be genuinely interested in Andrews progress - if you have, could you kindly remove it please? This is a private blog.
Many many thanks to you all
Gill
xx
Its alright for you mate... is a rather uncharitable thought I have had several times today.
I arrived around 10 to find him asleep in his armchair, with memory book on his lap.. On awakening about an hour later he declined to answer my all establishing questions (who am I, how old are you etc) which he finds difficult, except one - where are you - to which he said hospital, eusebio ward. hmm. Eusebio has been mentioned several times, also in the context of a sandwich bar, so if anyone can make the connection here, please let me know!
A little later most of Stomp turned up to see him and we took over the dayroom, which isn't occupied much at that time of day and is reasonably soundproof, and played a number of tunes - sort of a rehearsal really! I think this is all just an excuse for him to play music with his mates every day, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with his musical abilities whatsoever. He did difficult rhythm clapping, played guitar and bass and also attempted a little singing though his voice is weak and will need working on.
A 3 course lunch was served to him in the dayroom; he then declared himself tired and went for a two-hour kip before receiving his visitors. These were: Ruth and Adam from cambridge with baby daugther Ella, with whom he was much entranced; Jean and Christine (sorry about him nicking your pencil Jean) ; then Caroline and Joan. The latter 4 visitors brought him cds and he now has quite a few photos for his memory book.
He ate a huge tea, languidly whilst wearing headphones and listening to his cds.
I, meanwhile, have red hands from constant washing and disinfection routines and have turned into a grumpy nagging wife barking out repeated commands: slippers! soap! don't go in there! don't do that! stop playing with the emergency button!, concentrate! etcetc...you get the idea.
Hannah, your pasta was much appreciated, I ate it for lunch. Alison, thank you for the food in the porch tonight. Sean has just phoned to say he is popping round with some salads for tomorrow. This is amazing.
On the medical side the consultant is to send him to Harefield this week for special cardiac tests that the L&D doesn't have. I can go with him. When the appointment is booked, I will put it on the blog & calendar so that people don't turn up when he isn't there. They are still puzzled as to a) why he doesn't have many of the outward symptoms of a brain stem infarct, even though he clearly has one, from the scans and b) what the underlying cause of this is in the first place. The consultant today said that they wanted to look "behind the heart".
All - please don't put this blog on any public websites - its just for family and friends and people that will be genuinely interested in Andrews progress - if you have, could you kindly remove it please? This is a private blog.
Many many thanks to you all
Gill
xx
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Feb 14th:
Arrived at hospital around 11 to find Andrew dressed and parked in the day room whilst his bed was being given a very thorough clean ( I was quite impressed - it looked as if it was some routine procedure underway perhaps they do it once a week or something - it seemed as if it was being partially dismantled to be done). They were doing the underside of the mattress and the ends of the bed and - well -everything.
Establishing questions revealed that he was 24 and I was his girlfriend.
We then had a very pleasant quiet two hours in the dayroom starting on his "memory book" ( a file with plastic pockets in which I can put facts and photos etc.). We covered his family, where he has lived in his life, and various categories of friends e.g. "old friends", "music sales friends", "leighton buzzard friends", and the bands he has been in and some of the other musicians he has played with. It is as if someone has put him in a time machine and sent him forward 30 years. Various people have had children, got married, divorced,remarried, moved, and some have died. I have not hid the latter and he seems to cope with it, even though one of them is his dad. It is obvious to him that some people will not be alive if he is now 52. I don't know how much of this will be remembered tomorrow, but he spent another hour tonight looking at the book, and it really does seem to help. He asked me if we had children and about his mum and my parents. I am still going to have to do some serious sifting of all the photos we have here to find the most pertinent ones. Perhaps I will just do a few each day. Its no good just having a picture it needs a label with it e.g. " our house" etcetc.
He ate lunch quietly at a normal table ( its OK for him - I sit and eat my pack lunch while he wolfs down a 3-course meal!) without any strange behaviours ( but then salt and pepper were not provided today)
Around 1.30pm Chris Wilkinson arrived with his guitar and the two sat down and played for nearly two hours going through around a dozen of Chris's songs which he had printed out with words and chords. However, Andrew seemed to be able to remember most of the guitar parts without much prompting (or no more than normal), and did some pretty good solos. Amazing. He even attempted to sing faintly on one (his voice is still weak), but I think he was reading the words for this.
Then he had a succession of visitors including Martin and Cinta, the real Michael Chapman ( see yesterdays blog) and his wife Sally, Ned, and later Peter Flint. All recognised immediately. He continued to play guitar on and off for most of the afternoon, but at the end got suddenly very tired and I walked him off to his bed, where I left him expecting at least an hours sleep. However, when the food came around 15 mins later I came back to the room to find him up, in the chair and polishing off the first course, looking very bright.
Tonight leaving was very hard and I have had to promise that I will come back tomorrow several times. It must be terrifying to lose your memory and not know where you are, or when it is. If I could move in there and stay with him I would.
On arrival home I found a wheat free pasta dish in the porch - thank you Hannah.
Several people have asked about his treatment. He is getting aspirin, statins for cholesterol and something like "copraxol" which everyone tells me is a painkiller, though he doesn't have any pain.
Thank you all for all your messages of support; in particular I would like to say thank you to those who have been able to offer specific help with memory/stroke problems, which I may well need when Andrew comes home. I have, in a small way, also been able to offer a little support to the wife of the 40-something man in the bed opposite (also called Andrew) who was admitted yesterday and who is therefore approx 1 week behind me in this strange and frightening journey.
Gill
Arrived at hospital around 11 to find Andrew dressed and parked in the day room whilst his bed was being given a very thorough clean ( I was quite impressed - it looked as if it was some routine procedure underway perhaps they do it once a week or something - it seemed as if it was being partially dismantled to be done). They were doing the underside of the mattress and the ends of the bed and - well -everything.
Establishing questions revealed that he was 24 and I was his girlfriend.
We then had a very pleasant quiet two hours in the dayroom starting on his "memory book" ( a file with plastic pockets in which I can put facts and photos etc.). We covered his family, where he has lived in his life, and various categories of friends e.g. "old friends", "music sales friends", "leighton buzzard friends", and the bands he has been in and some of the other musicians he has played with. It is as if someone has put him in a time machine and sent him forward 30 years. Various people have had children, got married, divorced,remarried, moved, and some have died. I have not hid the latter and he seems to cope with it, even though one of them is his dad. It is obvious to him that some people will not be alive if he is now 52. I don't know how much of this will be remembered tomorrow, but he spent another hour tonight looking at the book, and it really does seem to help. He asked me if we had children and about his mum and my parents. I am still going to have to do some serious sifting of all the photos we have here to find the most pertinent ones. Perhaps I will just do a few each day. Its no good just having a picture it needs a label with it e.g. " our house" etcetc.
He ate lunch quietly at a normal table ( its OK for him - I sit and eat my pack lunch while he wolfs down a 3-course meal!) without any strange behaviours ( but then salt and pepper were not provided today)
Around 1.30pm Chris Wilkinson arrived with his guitar and the two sat down and played for nearly two hours going through around a dozen of Chris's songs which he had printed out with words and chords. However, Andrew seemed to be able to remember most of the guitar parts without much prompting (or no more than normal), and did some pretty good solos. Amazing. He even attempted to sing faintly on one (his voice is still weak), but I think he was reading the words for this.
Then he had a succession of visitors including Martin and Cinta, the real Michael Chapman ( see yesterdays blog) and his wife Sally, Ned, and later Peter Flint. All recognised immediately. He continued to play guitar on and off for most of the afternoon, but at the end got suddenly very tired and I walked him off to his bed, where I left him expecting at least an hours sleep. However, when the food came around 15 mins later I came back to the room to find him up, in the chair and polishing off the first course, looking very bright.
Tonight leaving was very hard and I have had to promise that I will come back tomorrow several times. It must be terrifying to lose your memory and not know where you are, or when it is. If I could move in there and stay with him I would.
On arrival home I found a wheat free pasta dish in the porch - thank you Hannah.
Several people have asked about his treatment. He is getting aspirin, statins for cholesterol and something like "copraxol" which everyone tells me is a painkiller, though he doesn't have any pain.
Thank you all for all your messages of support; in particular I would like to say thank you to those who have been able to offer specific help with memory/stroke problems, which I may well need when Andrew comes home. I have, in a small way, also been able to offer a little support to the wife of the 40-something man in the bed opposite (also called Andrew) who was admitted yesterday and who is therefore approx 1 week behind me in this strange and frightening journey.
Gill
Friday, 13 February 2009
Friday 13th:
This morning I found Andrew dressed in "real" clothes as opposed to green pyjamas. The occupational therapist had requested that he be asked to put them on himself, and, with some prompting this was apparently achieved.
On arrival I checked how old he was (6) what the year was (1983) who I was (Gill, his wife) where he lived ( not known) and where he was (not sure).
I had brought in his washburn guitar and took him down to the dayroom where he immediately picked it up and started playing it for about an hour as if nothing had happened. Such sweet music!
He opened around 6 cards and presents and then declared himself very tired so we went back to the ward, where he did not get much rest because lunch arrived. He ate well, but I had to stop him putting pepper on his pudding, and from eating the pudding before the main course.
Then the occupational therapist arrived to do some memory tests in her office (which is her kitchen). These he found very hard. He declared that he was 17, that it was March, that he was born in 1963, that the prime minister was Wilson and that the US president was Johnson. When asked to repeat a 5 sentence story, he could only repeat 5 words. He did much better on the visual memory tests however, and hardly made any mistakes in remembering which pictures ( of both objects and faces) he had seen. He was particularly taken with the picture of one "Catherine Taylor" who I hope is not in the vicinity ( though as the pictures were quite old, she probably doesn't look like that now!). He managed to follow a route that the OT showed him around the kitchen, but when asked to do it 5 mins later could not repeat it. The OT said that his memory was very poor but that it could be trained and would probably take around 3 months.
The ward has been very busy today; the man in the bed next to Andrew is dying and his relatives crave some peace; the bed opposite has been taken by a man of approximately the same age as Andrew whose wife is in the same state of shock that I was in last week. She had been about to go to work when she heard a thump and found her husband lying on the floor. I can only empathise. Several other people have been admitted and the nurses seem flat out.
After the memory test Andrew was exhausted and had to have a lie down for an hour and missed his next task which was to play his guitar before the OT with Stomp member Kevin Adams. However, the OT was very forgiving and said that recovering from stroke needs plenty of rest.
He managed to wake up when friends Dave and Lizzie Miller came to see him. He remembered Lizzie when prompted by the knowledge that she made cakes, but decided that Dave was Mike Chapman. In fairness there is a huge likeness between the two , and if you had a picture in your head of Mike Chapman circa 1976 and aged it a bit, it could be very similar to Dave Miller.
Then he went down to the dayroom to play guitar again, with Kevin Adams, which he did very well for some while and impressed his consultant who came along to listen to "Here comes the sun". (Andrew has not attempted singing, he is concentrating hard on playing). This has been a major achievment of the day. He must keep this up and I would appeal to any musician friends available please to go along and spend an hour or two with him in the dayroom if you can spare the time. He has his washburn locked up at the hospital; let me know if you can go and I will ask the staff to release it.
The consultant is away next week and has left a list of tests and tasks he wants done. Andrew will not be moved for an operation unless, for some reason, he deteriorates. I will speak to the consultant again upon return - so it looks as if he will be there foir a week It is likely that around that time a "home visit" will be arranged to see how well he orientates himself at home.
Andrew also recognised friends Bob,Sean, Doreen, Rory and Chris. Sean supervised supper and successfully prevented a salt-in-the creme-caramel incident. Andrew was particularly interested with pictures of Doreen's birthday party that were brought in.
I left him at 8pm and went with Rory & Doreen for a curry. On return home. I found 4 cards stuck in the outside of the door ( thinks - is letterbox not working , must check) and 2 pairs of jogging pants in the porch. Thank you so much to whoever came today that got the jogging pants for him, this is one less task to deal with tomorrow,and I will pay you when you make yourself known. Lucy - I would really love your help with compiling the "this is your life book", I have to sort through loads and loads of photos, and I would really be grateful for your help in this - it could take hours and hours when I could be at the hospital.
Once again, I feel overwhelmed with the support from everyone - thank you all.
Gill
xx
This morning I found Andrew dressed in "real" clothes as opposed to green pyjamas. The occupational therapist had requested that he be asked to put them on himself, and, with some prompting this was apparently achieved.
On arrival I checked how old he was (6) what the year was (1983) who I was (Gill, his wife) where he lived ( not known) and where he was (not sure).
I had brought in his washburn guitar and took him down to the dayroom where he immediately picked it up and started playing it for about an hour as if nothing had happened. Such sweet music!
He opened around 6 cards and presents and then declared himself very tired so we went back to the ward, where he did not get much rest because lunch arrived. He ate well, but I had to stop him putting pepper on his pudding, and from eating the pudding before the main course.
Then the occupational therapist arrived to do some memory tests in her office (which is her kitchen). These he found very hard. He declared that he was 17, that it was March, that he was born in 1963, that the prime minister was Wilson and that the US president was Johnson. When asked to repeat a 5 sentence story, he could only repeat 5 words. He did much better on the visual memory tests however, and hardly made any mistakes in remembering which pictures ( of both objects and faces) he had seen. He was particularly taken with the picture of one "Catherine Taylor" who I hope is not in the vicinity ( though as the pictures were quite old, she probably doesn't look like that now!). He managed to follow a route that the OT showed him around the kitchen, but when asked to do it 5 mins later could not repeat it. The OT said that his memory was very poor but that it could be trained and would probably take around 3 months.
The ward has been very busy today; the man in the bed next to Andrew is dying and his relatives crave some peace; the bed opposite has been taken by a man of approximately the same age as Andrew whose wife is in the same state of shock that I was in last week. She had been about to go to work when she heard a thump and found her husband lying on the floor. I can only empathise. Several other people have been admitted and the nurses seem flat out.
After the memory test Andrew was exhausted and had to have a lie down for an hour and missed his next task which was to play his guitar before the OT with Stomp member Kevin Adams. However, the OT was very forgiving and said that recovering from stroke needs plenty of rest.
He managed to wake up when friends Dave and Lizzie Miller came to see him. He remembered Lizzie when prompted by the knowledge that she made cakes, but decided that Dave was Mike Chapman. In fairness there is a huge likeness between the two , and if you had a picture in your head of Mike Chapman circa 1976 and aged it a bit, it could be very similar to Dave Miller.
Then he went down to the dayroom to play guitar again, with Kevin Adams, which he did very well for some while and impressed his consultant who came along to listen to "Here comes the sun". (Andrew has not attempted singing, he is concentrating hard on playing). This has been a major achievment of the day. He must keep this up and I would appeal to any musician friends available please to go along and spend an hour or two with him in the dayroom if you can spare the time. He has his washburn locked up at the hospital; let me know if you can go and I will ask the staff to release it.
The consultant is away next week and has left a list of tests and tasks he wants done. Andrew will not be moved for an operation unless, for some reason, he deteriorates. I will speak to the consultant again upon return - so it looks as if he will be there foir a week It is likely that around that time a "home visit" will be arranged to see how well he orientates himself at home.
Andrew also recognised friends Bob,Sean, Doreen, Rory and Chris. Sean supervised supper and successfully prevented a salt-in-the creme-caramel incident. Andrew was particularly interested with pictures of Doreen's birthday party that were brought in.
I left him at 8pm and went with Rory & Doreen for a curry. On return home. I found 4 cards stuck in the outside of the door ( thinks - is letterbox not working , must check) and 2 pairs of jogging pants in the porch. Thank you so much to whoever came today that got the jogging pants for him, this is one less task to deal with tomorrow,and I will pay you when you make yourself known. Lucy - I would really love your help with compiling the "this is your life book", I have to sort through loads and loads of photos, and I would really be grateful for your help in this - it could take hours and hours when I could be at the hospital.
Once again, I feel overwhelmed with the support from everyone - thank you all.
Gill
xx
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Latest update Thursday 12th, : Andrew has had a really good day.
He has managed to stay awake nearly all day, which I attribute to the music which I have put on the CD player kindly donated by Tony - thank you!. He has listened to both Chloe's radio broadcast CDs , the soul CD that Tony bought in and spent ages listening to and reading the cover of the Fiddling Around CD (on which he appears). The putting on of the music has stopped the onset of drowsiness very effectively each time he looks like falling asleep, and he gets really interested in selecting which CD to put on.
The other exciting event was the outing with the occupational therapist to her kitchen. Not only did this take him out of the ward for the first time but he had to perform a task which was:
Make 2 cups of tea and 1 of coffee, all with milk and no sugar. He was shown where the kettle, cups, etc were and left to get on with it. He did very well, apart from forgetting to put any water in the kettle and forgetting to put milk in one of the cups. The tea was even quite drinkable! Nothing was spilt. The main problem was with trying to concentrate and remember what he had to do and where everything was.
The length of his short term memory is approx 5-10 mins. This means that even though he promises faithfully to do something, like stay in bed for 2 hours after his lumbar puncture yesterday, he gets up and walks off after 10 mins because he has forgotten what he was told to do!
Tomorrow gets even more exciting because he has been promised he can wear real clothes and play his guitar when the occupational therapist sees him at 3pm - she wants to see how he gets on. (This clashes with Daves visit - see comment from Kevin - Dave if you see this can you arrange to come after 4pm?). Kev is going to come along and assist musically.
The occupational therapist has advised me to label everything in the house and to create a sort of "this is your life" book, with pictures, dates etc, which brings me onto the next topic: when asked what year it is he usually says a year between 1971 and 1976. He thinks he is is 24 or 19 and when I asked him how old I am he said 21 (!!! - and there is nothing wrong with his eyesight either) . The occupational therapist actually went and got a full length mirror in which he was required to examine himself and see if he really was 24. Each day I have told him it is 2009 and he looks totally amazed, the first two days he sort of went into "could not compute" mode and fell asleep with the effort of trying to understand; though today he did actually manage to remember he was 52 for several hours after he had been told. He still can't recognise a picture of our house, or describe anything about the inside.
However, he recognises nearly all his visitors, no matter how long he has known them.
The other real progress is in the area of reading and writing. He got really interested in a "Songlines" magazine that Tammy brought in tonight, and has spent a considerable amount of time reading it; he is also examining all the signs around the hospital. I have promised to bring in certain CD's that appear in the "Songlines" mag. Today I gave him pen and paper and asked him to write down words that I couldn't hear him say clearly. His writing is fine, spelling OK, but very small. A big leap forward was that tonight he chose what to eat tomorrow from the written menu presented to him. He ticked all the boxes of the things he wanted, reading each item, making up his mind and correctly ticking the boxes in the right way.
His consultant came round this morning said he is making good progress and could go home soon ( this gave me a slight flutter of panic, I was not expecting that I might have to cope with this so quickly). He confessed that Andrew is still a "mystery to him" and that though he has definitely had a stroke, he is still not sure what has caused it, or whether he has had a series of small clots which moved. Tonight I asked if the lumbar puncture test results were available and was told that they were putting them together with other results and to come back again about 5.30 tomorrow night and another MRI was mentioned. The whole mood of the doctors was much more positive today than yesterday. So I don't know whether the mooted operation will be on or not.
Thank you all for the cards, the wheat-free food parcels, the texts and emails, the photos and the music . It is really keeping me going. Andrew is able to read all the cards, no matter how difficult the handwriting. Please keep the photos coming - I have to compile a history of the last 25 years of Andrew ! (does anyone have any expertise in doing such a thing?!). I left the hospital quite early tonight at around 8pm and am hoping for some rest at home.
He has managed to stay awake nearly all day, which I attribute to the music which I have put on the CD player kindly donated by Tony - thank you!. He has listened to both Chloe's radio broadcast CDs , the soul CD that Tony bought in and spent ages listening to and reading the cover of the Fiddling Around CD (on which he appears). The putting on of the music has stopped the onset of drowsiness very effectively each time he looks like falling asleep, and he gets really interested in selecting which CD to put on.
The other exciting event was the outing with the occupational therapist to her kitchen. Not only did this take him out of the ward for the first time but he had to perform a task which was:
Make 2 cups of tea and 1 of coffee, all with milk and no sugar. He was shown where the kettle, cups, etc were and left to get on with it. He did very well, apart from forgetting to put any water in the kettle and forgetting to put milk in one of the cups. The tea was even quite drinkable! Nothing was spilt. The main problem was with trying to concentrate and remember what he had to do and where everything was.
The length of his short term memory is approx 5-10 mins. This means that even though he promises faithfully to do something, like stay in bed for 2 hours after his lumbar puncture yesterday, he gets up and walks off after 10 mins because he has forgotten what he was told to do!
Tomorrow gets even more exciting because he has been promised he can wear real clothes and play his guitar when the occupational therapist sees him at 3pm - she wants to see how he gets on. (This clashes with Daves visit - see comment from Kevin - Dave if you see this can you arrange to come after 4pm?). Kev is going to come along and assist musically.
The occupational therapist has advised me to label everything in the house and to create a sort of "this is your life" book, with pictures, dates etc, which brings me onto the next topic: when asked what year it is he usually says a year between 1971 and 1976. He thinks he is is 24 or 19 and when I asked him how old I am he said 21 (!!! - and there is nothing wrong with his eyesight either) . The occupational therapist actually went and got a full length mirror in which he was required to examine himself and see if he really was 24. Each day I have told him it is 2009 and he looks totally amazed, the first two days he sort of went into "could not compute" mode and fell asleep with the effort of trying to understand; though today he did actually manage to remember he was 52 for several hours after he had been told. He still can't recognise a picture of our house, or describe anything about the inside.
However, he recognises nearly all his visitors, no matter how long he has known them.
The other real progress is in the area of reading and writing. He got really interested in a "Songlines" magazine that Tammy brought in tonight, and has spent a considerable amount of time reading it; he is also examining all the signs around the hospital. I have promised to bring in certain CD's that appear in the "Songlines" mag. Today I gave him pen and paper and asked him to write down words that I couldn't hear him say clearly. His writing is fine, spelling OK, but very small. A big leap forward was that tonight he chose what to eat tomorrow from the written menu presented to him. He ticked all the boxes of the things he wanted, reading each item, making up his mind and correctly ticking the boxes in the right way.
His consultant came round this morning said he is making good progress and could go home soon ( this gave me a slight flutter of panic, I was not expecting that I might have to cope with this so quickly). He confessed that Andrew is still a "mystery to him" and that though he has definitely had a stroke, he is still not sure what has caused it, or whether he has had a series of small clots which moved. Tonight I asked if the lumbar puncture test results were available and was told that they were putting them together with other results and to come back again about 5.30 tomorrow night and another MRI was mentioned. The whole mood of the doctors was much more positive today than yesterday. So I don't know whether the mooted operation will be on or not.
Thank you all for the cards, the wheat-free food parcels, the texts and emails, the photos and the music . It is really keeping me going. Andrew is able to read all the cards, no matter how difficult the handwriting. Please keep the photos coming - I have to compile a history of the last 25 years of Andrew ! (does anyone have any expertise in doing such a thing?!). I left the hospital quite early tonight at around 8pm and am hoping for some rest at home.
Malcolm was going to send a comment but it hasn't appeared so I'm putting up brief news:
Andrew has had a lumbar puncture to help determine whether or not to have an operation to clear the clot in his basilar artery. The spinal fluid looked OK, but needs proper test results due later today. If he does go for the op, he may have to be moved. There are not many places that do it. The L&D are talking to the Royal Free constantly and there is one other place in the Eastern Region
Chloe- he loved your 2006 broadcast. Music raises his alertness considerably. The consultant is concerned about his drowsiness, which is partly why they are considering an operation, rather than relying on the aspirin as they are doing now
Thank you all for your support
Gill
xxx
Andrew has had a lumbar puncture to help determine whether or not to have an operation to clear the clot in his basilar artery. The spinal fluid looked OK, but needs proper test results due later today. If he does go for the op, he may have to be moved. There are not many places that do it. The L&D are talking to the Royal Free constantly and there is one other place in the Eastern Region
Chloe- he loved your 2006 broadcast. Music raises his alertness considerably. The consultant is concerned about his drowsiness, which is partly why they are considering an operation, rather than relying on the aspirin as they are doing now
Thank you all for your support
Gill
xxx
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Visiting Information
Andrew is in
Bed D2
Stroke Unit, Ward 17, St Marys Wing
Luton & Dunstable Hospital
Lewsey Road
Luton
LU4 0DZ
It is just off J11 of the M1
Visiting hours are 3pm-8pm
No more than 3 visitors at the bedside
You MUST use the handcleaner on entering & exiting the ward - its by the door.
Please do not sit on the bed
Only 1 relative is allowed to remain on the ward at mealtime, between 5.15 and 6.15, this is really to help with meals and allow the patient to eat in a calm environment.
If you have some music that will help Andrew to remember a connection with you or that you know he really likes please put it on a CD, he has a CD player. It will also help to take in some pictures of things to help him remember things you have done together - he is trying to piece back together who is.
Bed D2
Stroke Unit, Ward 17, St Marys Wing
Luton & Dunstable Hospital
Lewsey Road
Luton
LU4 0DZ
It is just off J11 of the M1
Visiting hours are 3pm-8pm
No more than 3 visitors at the bedside
You MUST use the handcleaner on entering & exiting the ward - its by the door.
Please do not sit on the bed
Only 1 relative is allowed to remain on the ward at mealtime, between 5.15 and 6.15, this is really to help with meals and allow the patient to eat in a calm environment.
If you have some music that will help Andrew to remember a connection with you or that you know he really likes please put it on a CD, he has a CD player. It will also help to take in some pictures of things to help him remember things you have done together - he is trying to piece back together who is.
History of Andrew in Hospital so far
Andrew was taken into the Luton & Dunstable hospital on the morning of Thursday 5th February, after I had had difficulty waking him - he couldn't focus his eyes, wasn't speaking properly and when he eventually did get up to go to the loo, I found him hanging onto the edge of the sink. This was at about 8.30. He had been wide awake at about 6am; we had had a conversation about the snow and I had brought him a cup of tea, and I had decided to work at home - he had gone back to sleep and I was trying to get him up because a tradesman had come round to look at our drains. I dialled 999 and a paramedic was there within 10 mins but the ambulance was despatched from Ampthill ( they had had to dig the snow away for it to get out). All the emergency staff were absolutely wonderful - lets face it they had all got into work and were having to drive in awful conditions. For the last third of the journey we went in with the blue light on which was very scary and he went straight into resus, where they did loads of tests and asked me loads of questions all of which pointed to it not being an "ordinary" stroke. He had 2 CAT scans which failed to find much. The stroke consultant came to look at him and decided not to give him clot busting drugs; he admitted him to the stroke ward. I went home about 6pm when he was asleep, I thought he looked comfortable and would be having an MRI the next day . I called the hospital at 10.30pm; they said he was very poorly & had gone down for a 3rd CAT scan. Friends Rory & Doreen took me back to the L&D, where we were told that they thought he had a "brain stem infarct" cause by a clot and that the next 24-48 hrs were "acute". This was very very frightening. Doreen stayed with me all night at the hospital, by the side of the bed, I am so grateful for having such a wonderful friend. In the morning Rory came back.
Andrew woke when the sister put something in his mouth to moisten it. This was a huge relief. He recognised all of us. He has been making improvements since, and is now recognising most people who go to see him. The monitors are all off; his arms and legs are fine; he is able to walk (albeit a little unsteady). Since coming off the nil by mouth on Monday he has been eating heartily, unaided. However, he is a bit confused and his voice is weak; he sometimes says things that are a bit unconnected to anything e.g. "basilica" or "St Stephens Day". He seems to think he was about 17. He has forgotten he is vegetarian, and is happily eating stuff with meat in unless I get to it first. However, he knows he plays guitar and is making quite strong connections with music. He has asked about his mum and dad and I haven't been able to tell him that his dad has died. He did not know where "home" was, and I have had to explain. Although he knows I am Gill he was surprised to find I was his wife and said so "that's why you're here I thought you were my friend's wife". I hope he's not too disappointed in his new-found wife!
So many people have sent texts and emails and best wishes that I cannot get round to thank you all yet. It really is wonderful to have so much support, and I am very very grateful for it.
Andrew woke when the sister put something in his mouth to moisten it. This was a huge relief. He recognised all of us. He has been making improvements since, and is now recognising most people who go to see him. The monitors are all off; his arms and legs are fine; he is able to walk (albeit a little unsteady). Since coming off the nil by mouth on Monday he has been eating heartily, unaided. However, he is a bit confused and his voice is weak; he sometimes says things that are a bit unconnected to anything e.g. "basilica" or "St Stephens Day". He seems to think he was about 17. He has forgotten he is vegetarian, and is happily eating stuff with meat in unless I get to it first. However, he knows he plays guitar and is making quite strong connections with music. He has asked about his mum and dad and I haven't been able to tell him that his dad has died. He did not know where "home" was, and I have had to explain. Although he knows I am Gill he was surprised to find I was his wife and said so "that's why you're here I thought you were my friend's wife". I hope he's not too disappointed in his new-found wife!
So many people have sent texts and emails and best wishes that I cannot get round to thank you all yet. It really is wonderful to have so much support, and I am very very grateful for it.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
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