Paul update - Day 26

Day 26 – Monday 8 December

Paul had physio again this morning and for the first time some of the exercises he did were on an exercise bike. This purpose of this was to measure the power in his legs and they were pleased to note that he developed equal power in both legs; he also reached the level that they would not have expected until after three or four sessions which presumably shows that his previous escapades on his mountain bike and general good level of fitness before the accident has helped – all those sessions in the gym obviously paid off!

He still has trouble walking but the exercises this morning presumably shows that it is simply that the messages are not getting from his brain to his legs properly yet and not any other type of problem so hopefully, once the brain swelling has reduced, he should regain full mobility.

He is quite pleased to get his phone back and has spent some time sending and receiving texts so thanks to everyone for getting in contact with him; keep them coming but note that it may take him a little while to respond.

He also started to read the mountain bike magazines that Andrew and Aaron brought in for him before, but after a short while he complained that his eyes were aching so he gave up on that and listened to Mark’s iPod instead. He has an appointment with the ophthalmologist at the ARI tomorrow so with any luck we will able to get to the bottom of his double vision problem and see what can be done to alleviate it. Hopefully all of these minor issues will clear with time but it will be nice to know what if anything we can do to help nature along.

So just to remind you Paul has a couple of appointments at the ARI tomorrow and will be there for most of the day, so it will probably be advisable not to visit as we are not sure what time we will get back and when he does, presumably he will be quite tired. Should all be back to normal on Wednesday though.

One other bit of good news we got today was that we can almost certainly have Paul home for Christmas. The final decision has not been made but they think we can probably bring him home Christmas Eve and take him back on or around the 27^th. Also, in the New Year, he can probably come home for weekends.

There were quite a few visitors today: Andrew, David (Webb), Donald, Kim and Mo (from work). Paul was on good form, laughing and joking with everyone and generally enjoying himself. At times like this it is sometimes difficult to remember the extent of his injury and it is only when he tries to walk or gets tired and his speech deteriorates that we are brought back done to earth with a bump. However, less than 4 weeks have elapsed since the accident and we continue to thank our lucky stars that he has progressed so far; I re-read some of the early days of the blog again this morning which was quite upsetting, but already it seems like a lifetime ago.......