This week, in preparation for discharge this coming Friday, Amanda has been home twice with an occupational therapist so they can see how she handles everyday tasks and what equipment she might need. As a result they actually REMOVED the rail she uses to help herself get up off the bed! But we will need a couple of safety rails in the shower and also hand rails down the back steps. We have to keep telling ourselves these will be temporary as she will continue to recover the feeling in her right side and hence her sense of balance.
Her right arm continues to regain movement and her brain has got to the stage of sending 2 basic signals – hot and cold. She has also commented on her tongue and cheek on her right side feeling icy cold, yet perfectly normal to the touch.
As a result of the trips home I gave her her handbag back, so she had somewhere safe to carry a door key and which, as any woman knows, is a significant milestone.
We didn’t bother bringing a wheelchair home as a back up this weekend and she also went the entire time without resorting to needing a sling to support her right arm.
The battery on her watch died and it transpired the whole watch is buggered. So I found an old Casio digital watch she could wear. This revealed she actually tells the time by looking at the position of the watch hands.
Just like letters, it turns out she also has problems recognising numbers. It took 15 minutes on Saturday for her to remember (after much repitition) the 4 digit PIN on her phone. So on Sunday I did away with the symbols for numbers (1,2,3 etc) and resorted to using coloured tokens for simple adding and subtracting practice. This gives us something to practice once she is home full-time (as of next Friday).
For some idea of how her brain is currently working, she misread the word ‘apple’ as ‘100%’ I can sort of see how she got that.
Blue Banana Blog 