Thursday, 18 September 2008

Fear of not walking again

I participated in a therapy session with Jo today. A good hour and the therapists had her standing for the first time. Her back muscles are good and symmetrical and she was able to raise herself up to standing with me supporting her left arm, which is still heavy and unresponsive, although both I and one of the physiotherapists, saw her move the left arm back at one stage.

They were pleased with her progress and used a plank to move her back in the chair instead of the hoist, making her use her buttock muscles to slide back into the chair. She is making very good progress.

We then went for a long walk around the hospital grounds, visiting the car to pick up a parking ticket and take it to the ticket office. We spent a long time sitting in the sun, which Jo enjoyed. She admitted she was frightened of not being able to walk again, which is natural but I think, if she continues as I have seen this last week, she will be mobile again very soon. She spent 4 hours in the chair today which is important at this stage for her to regain her sense of balance and for the composure of her torso muscles.

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Different strokes...

It has been nearly seven years since Jo suffered a "controlled" stroke whilst undergoing brain surgery to clip the blood vessel that had caused a subarachnoid haemorrhage in 2000. Sadly two successive coilings did not occlude the bleed and so Jo had a craniotomy in August 2008. During surgery the surgeon discovered the coiling had penetrated the rear of the aneurysm, occasioning emergency repair procedures. Consequentially they spent one and a half hours longer in surgery than expected, leading to the right half of Jo's brain forgetting it has to look after the left side of her world.