Mind and Matter

We have another week's hiatus in Jo's rehabilitation as we await the insurance company's approval for further treatment. Hopefully the revised care plan will be put in place this week and Jo will be walking every day from her bedroom to the bathroom.

Jo is now remembering her struggle with death in August 2008. The memories are brief, disjointed and painful but very clear. Perhaps this is part of the reawakening of the brain that the neurologists seemed to think was a possibility back then? Certainly it seems concurrent with further subconscious action driving conscious action.

When Jo is asleep in her chair her left leg lifts up, the left foot is turned up at the ankle and then the foot is placed down on the floor in a deliberate fashion that is more assured than her waking mind can muster. I fail to see how the physiotherapists and neurologists can dismiss this as a reflexive and involuntary action and it seems to vindicate my thesis that the thoughts and actions start in the subconscious mind and are then manifested in conscious thoughts and actions.

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Well done Jo

Today was an important day for Jo. Her care agency were here to assess Jo's walking and transfers in order that they might assist her with both on a daily basis. This is important because frequency is the key to effective rehabilitation.

Beforehand Jo was apprehensive about how well she would perform these tasks as the pain in her feet from the increased stiffening of the muscles has been quite intense of late. So much so that Jo was unsure if she could even stand, let alone step.

Credit must go to Jo's carers, who took the extra time this morning and made the extra effort to coax Jo into standing.

This had a remarkably efficacious effect on Jo's confidence and, once the physiotherapist and care assessment assistant arrived, Jo managed the crucial walk from her bedroom to the wetroom and the transfers from her glideabout to the chair with aplomb.

The care assessor has therefore supported the carers assisting Jo with these on a daily basis, which is sure to help Jo become more mobile more rapidly.

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Discombobulation

After a week's hiatus, occasioned by what seemed to be a recurrence of the gout that last plagued her in July, Jo's physiotherapy resumed today.

Late last week our GP paid Jo a home visit as the steroids used to treat the gout did not seem as efficacious as before. After a physical examination of both feet he determined that the bio-mechanics of Jo's feet had been affected by the prolonged inactivity and Jo would need the specialist attention of a podiatrist to rectify this.

The physiotherapist conducted a fairly thorough examination today and concluded that there is muscle and tendon distortion on both feet, caused by the afore-mentioned inactivity. In her right foot it is aggravated by an old injury dating from her childhood, a broken big toe. This makes her big toe point upwards and thus affects the balance from the instep to the ankle.

In her left foot the muscles and tendons on the left side are stretched and those on the right shortened. This is why her foot at rest and when standing tends to roll over onto the left side of her foot. The pain on the left is further aggravated by the neuropathic pain.

Rectifying both requires Jo to undergo considerable nausea-inducing pain as she force stretches the muscles and tendons in each foot. A splint on her left leg may help but there is no way of avoiding the pain.

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A bout of gout

Just when things seemed to be improving Jo has been struck by a bout of gastroenteritus, possibly carried by her carers. This has had the knock on effect of triggering an attack of gout in her right foot.

On Thursday the gout was relatively mild and may have even helped Jo in her physiotherapy as the pain in her right foot forced her to put more weight on her left foot. You can see this in the video.

Unfortunately gout often gets worse before it gets better and this is the case now. Despite starting a course of steroids to reduce the inflammation Jo has become bedridden as the pain in her right foot has prevented her from standing. Let us hope it has subsided in time for Monday's physiotherapy session.

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The connectedness of things

There is a trend in the IT world I work in to talk about a world of connected things where your mobile talks to your car and your car talks to the petrol pump and so on and so forth.

In this modern utopia the collective data, or knowledge, as the seers would have it, is magically transmogrified into wisdom by dint of its sheer volume and its interconnectedness, into wisdom.

The "new age thinkers" (sic) also claim we are living in a new age of spiritual wisdom engendered by the interconnectivity of all this data, claiming that, "The new technology IS the new mythology. The shimmering global web is consciousness, is the digital web connecting us."

Mythology means the creation of myths and like all myths the devil, or god (take your pick) is in the details when it comes to translating a mythology into reality.

This fact was brought home to us during today's physiotherapy session.

One of the things stroke victims have to deal with is the lack of muscle tone on one side of the body affecting bodily functions such as chewing and defeacation. Control of those movements that all of us take for granted have to be painfully relearnt.

One of the retraining procedures Jo and I use is a daily regime of cafe con leche for breakfast. The warm milk and strong coffee triggers a predictable bowel movement that Jo is learning to recognise and control.

When the physiotherapy sessions started I realised they followed on from these ablutions but thought no more of it. Then today a neighbour called at just that crucial time when Jo would have been practising her daily toilet. Consequently the physiotherapy began without Jo having made this daily movement.

When Jo started to walk her anxiety was immediately apparent and we all struggled to understand the source of it.

It was only when Jo walked to the bedroom and expressed a wish to be placed over the toilet that the penny dropped.

Sure enough, once she had emptied her bowels her walking was much more assured although still a little hesitant, as you can see in the video.

Proof that the interconnectedeness of things is far more sublime than any of us realise and governs our every step in ways we cannot foresee or control.

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If only...

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 - Jan 20)

Your Week Ahead: You have been trying, for some while, to bring about a significant, permanent change. You have come close to success but you have not yet fully grasped it. Like soap in the bath tub, your great objective keeps slipping through your fingers. Something goes wrong or becomes mysteriously complicated. You have almost begun to despair of ever getting a satisfactory, long-lasting result. You are, though, much closer than you realise to making a major breakthrough. All the preparations have been made. The spade-work has been done. Overcome your fear of failure and take one more brave step.

Sent from the 'Jonathan Cainer Horoscopes' Android App. Jonathan Cainer's Capricorn forecast , Sun, 03 Oct 2010

I regard horoscopes as random wisdom that may be apposite dependent on chance. All I can add to this prediction for Capricorn, which Jo and I both are, is "bonne chance" or "your words to God's ears."

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