This small room with the luxury of a small flat screen TV and a
recliner chair for me to snooze in. For most of our first night we both froze
and I tossed and turned in the very uncomfortable recliner in between looking
after Hubby’s legs. Eventually it got too much for him and we finally broke
down and asked for additional heating. The staff surprised us yet again and
duly produced a portable heater for us and not the it’s not allowed Health
& Safety rigmarole that such a request usually elicits.
07:00am the next
morning a nurse popped her head around the door and told us we were expected in
the “plaster” unit between 07:30 and 08:00. So with no breakfast and not even a
hot drink we traipse down one of the drafty sloped external corridors to the unit
to be moulded for a brace that will hopefully help to correct Hubby’s
horrendous posture. A discussion ensued as to how they were going to get Hubby
as straight as possible to get the best result. So in the end because of his
terrible leg spasms we opted for balancing over the edge of the plinth with me
securing his legs whilst three others wrapped him in some sort of cloth soaked
resin. This sets a bit like plaster of Paris which then he was cut free from.
From this the Orthotics department make a body brace. By the time we returned
to our room we were late for our scheduled Physio so opted for a cup of tea and
some late breakfast. Well officially for Hubby only as they do not feed any
associated carers even if working 24/7. The Physio then turned up we at least
met her and had an initial chat about what the plans were.
Wednesday
afternoon we had another session with the OT where we talked about posture and Hubby’s
hand function. She also told us that we would be moving into an adapted flat on
site for the rest of our stay so that I could continue to look after Hubby. In
the evening after dinner we got on with the 3-day interval chore of manually
evacuating Hubby’s bowels. Something must have gone wrong during the process,
well we think so as we had to call out the on call doc as Hubby had some
bladder problems which were very painful.
In the morning
while Hubby ate his breakfast we first noticed the birds outside, an amazing
collection of Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, a Robin, and other once common
English birds all outside our window enjoying the bird feeders that someone had
provided. I have never seen so many wild birds in one place.
Thursday we
attended a physio and another OT session and had the afternoon to ourselves to
move into the Graham Hill Unit our home from home for the next few days. To get
to the unit you head from the spinal unit ward down a very long corridor, past
the rehab gym, along the gallery of the Aspire sports hall, down the lift out
of the Aspire building entrance, then walk past the outside of the very
impressive zero entry Aspire provided heated pool. Then you are faced with a
very unfriendly narrow sloping unlit zigzag pathway down to the unit. Not a
very accessible pathway to the disability adapted show flat that is the Graham
Hill Unit. Hope it doesn’t snow!
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