Paul update - Day 19

Day 19 – Monday 1 December

GOOD NEWS – PAUL IS MOVING TO WOODEND (Maidencraig) TOMORROW – so don’t come to the ARI to see him ‘cos he won’t be there!!

More of that later though....back to today. We arrived at around 1130 – the same time as Andrew – to find Paul wide awake and quite alert. Over the weekend he had been very tired but evidently he had a good night’s sleep last night so he was back to his near normal smiley old self!

He chatted to Andrew for a while and then one of the speech therapists arrived and spoke to Paul.  She gave him some tips about how to speak more clearly; his mind is working quite quickly now but his mouth is struggling to keep up so if he is trying to say a sentence, it tends to merge into a mumble. The speech therapist gave him some tips about how to pace himself such as tapping a rhythm with his hand as he speaks to regulate what he is saying and although she was only with him for a few minutes, it definitely helped.  Once he gets up to Maidencraig and gets more dedicated therapy, he should come on leaps and bounds.

Andrew left a short while before lunch, which was tuna salad with a croissant; seems like a strange mix but he thoroughly enjoyed it.....he seems to eat anything and everything that is given to him and things that he wouldn’t touch before like coleslaw and tomato, he now eats without a second thought!

After lunch we had to get him ready for his trip to the gym for some physio and just as he finished getting dressed he announced that he needed a s**t!

Erm, NURSE – HELP!

Anyway, that was satisfactorily dealt with so it was off to the gym.

The plan before the decision to move him was that they were concentrating on his torso to build some strength and they also tried to get him walking a short distance today, but this is still a struggle for him.  They were going to print off some sheets for him tomorrow detailing some exercises that he can do in bed and for us to work through with him so that they can concentrate on the standing exercises in the gym, but we will have to see whether the plan at Maidencraig is the same?

His concentration span is also much improved and he was listening to Mark’s iPod for quite a while this afternoon; he was even changing tracks and turning the volume up and down without help so his co-ordination and dexterity is definitely improving.

We saw the neurosurgeon this afternoon and he gave us the results of the MRI scan.  Basically he said it showed exactly what he expected which was a number of areas of bruising but the main injury is to the left hand side – there was a technical term for this but neither of us can remember what it was.  He added that Paul is making an excellent recovery and estimates that within about 6 months Paul should be able to do pretty much everything he could before.  The swelling should take about 6 weeks to go down so he will improve steadily over that time; the rest of his recovery will come from the rehabilitation programme. 

Although it is clear that Paul’s injury was extremely serious – every time we have a conversation with the neurosurgeon it brings us back down to earth with a bump about Paul’s injury – the good news is that there is nothing in the MRI that gives any cause for concern so we continue to thank our lucky stars and remember back 3 short weeks and how far we have come.

So, just to confirm, all we know at the moment is that Paul is being moved to the rehabilitation unit at Woodend / Maidencraig sometime tomorrow.  The care he has received at the ARI has been excellent and all of the nurses and doctors have been first class, having said that though it is good news that he is now moving into the next stage of his recovery.

Unfortunately we don’t know what time he is moving or what the visiting times are (we have to ring in the morning) but I will stick the info on here as soon I can once we find out. Whilst we (and Paul) would be delighted to see you I would hate you to have a wasted journey so it might be best to wait until Wednesday to visit? I will try and send a text message as well but please can you pass this message on to anyone who may not look at the blog and who may want to visit. 

Thanks.