After a couple of hours and a number
of visitors she tired and became agitated and breating became difficult for
her. She had some quiet time during the afternoon and settled down
and when Kylie and I were allowed back in about 5:30PM she was calm
again. She is frustrated at our inability to read her lips and
communicate with her so time in with her is mostly quiet talking to her
touching her forehead and telling her to breathe slowly and deeply as shortness
of breath upsets and stresses her and she loses the rythym of her breathing and
the ventilator takes over. She is still on some small quantities of
sedative drugs to calm her and help her rest at tmes through the day. She
has a TV in the ward and it was on sometimes during the day, she isn't really able
to watch programs but I think the presence is comforting.
One thing I was able to lip read was
"why am I here" and I explained to her about her accident she had no
recollection of it or the events that followed. It seemed that the
surgery, anaesthesia, morphine and sedatives had caused some
amnesia. Ky and I could then understand her concern and confusion as
to where and why she was in the ICU.
The nurse today was very good at
explaining things about Jules treatment and how things may be expected to
progress. She said Jules was likely to spend weeks in ICU before being
transferred to the spinal unit and that she would arrange for us to meet with
the Spinal unit staff early next week for a briefing on likely scenarios.
Kylie and Darrel are amazing they are so caring and compassionate. Ky is so organised and logical in thought and planning, she puts me to shame. The visiting is stressful and tiring for us all after a day in the ICU waiting room we are all totally exhausted. I am trying to make sure we eat properly and at least have a good healthy breakfast and something substantial at night. It would be so easy to eat junk food on the run but would do none of us any good
Fleur Thresher brought her dads car
down today and we have found our dedicated parking space in the complex.
It is just a little bit more independence. Darrel has had the use of a
car from Russell and Colin and has been collecting us from our accommodation
and chauffering us about, this has been a great help. We have had so many
offers of all forms of help and assistance our hearts are warmed by the the
generosity and compassion of Jules friends.
Today was one step of many on a long journey.
We will update you all further
tomorrow.
Kind regards
Val, Norm, Kylie and Darrel
No comments:
Post a Comment