30th April 2011

Hiya,
Well, after a brilliant weekend, there had to be a fall, and it came from the hospital food police!!. This blog is read by one of Steven’s doctors, and she took exception to him having steak, and orange drinks. The result was notices placed around the hospital, warning patients and their carers of the dangers of choking amongst brain damaged people. Unbeknown to us, other people here are using the hospital microwaves to prepare food owing to the apparent displeasure of the hospital food. Presumably my blog and Steven’s honesty brought the issue out into the open. We were of course spoken to by the doctor, and although she had a most valid point, she failed to understand that the food we’ve been giving Steven is of the same consistency as hospital food, and in many cases an improvement. For example, at least the steak was fresh, and medium rare, and cut to small portions, a big difference to hospital fish steak with all manner of miniscule bones, but very similar to a hospital beefburger. We listened to the doctor, and will continue to allow Steven to have hospital type food on outside visits, and hopefully she will have confidence in us to look after Steven, as we have much confidence in her staff here. When I compare previous postings with recent ones, it’s plainly obvious that whatever the staff here are doing, it’s working in every respect. They have been nothing short of remarkable. Steven’s biggest problem now is his mental state, which can only be controlled by medicines, and encouragement from staff, us, and his many supporters. Steven is not experiencing as much pain as he has had in the past, from his left arm, and left leg. He can now raise his left arm over his head, and he has real strength in his left hand grip. There is small movement in his left ankle, but he still has a lot of pain in his left foot. He has continued to make progress walking, with assistance.
Steven very depressed Friday night and Saturday morning, caused apparently by us looking after him. This makes him so upset, full-on crying, and saying it’s all his fault. Saturday morning it continued, to the point that for the first time for a long time, he wished that there had been a different, but final, outcome to the accident, and that he’d had enough. Pauline and I tried to concentrate his mind to his previous successful efforts at walking, and other improvements, but that didn’t work. Saturday he was upset that I was shaving him, and he felt useless at not being able to do it himself. Again we tried to tell him that this will happen in time, but he wants to be better now, so that we can all get our lives back. He feels upset at us doing everything for him, everything is his fault. Of course it isn’t his fault, it’s the fault of the low-life that did this, and even a nurse couldn’t persuade him to think different. We were within seconds of giving him a tranquiliser when he finally calmed down. This was a marked difference to last weekend.
Good and bad yet again!!
Best regards Terry