Dave and I went to see Dave yesterday afternoon and then went to visit Roger and Margaret on the campsite at Bath and had a meal at the restaurant there. We were a bit late back home so hence I'm only doing the update now! We had a really nice evening together. Dave (and I) are very lucky to have a brother and sister-in-law who are prepared to forgo their original holiday plans and spend a week nearer to the hospital. By the way you may have heard that there was a fire and explosions at the new Bath shopping centre late yesterday afternoon - nothing to do with us! It was nice to speak Jilly too and I hope she and Paul navigate their way to Frenchay without too much trouble.
Dave had been hoisted out of bed and put into a special chair at about 2.30 pm to give him a change from lying in bed. He had his good eye open for most of our visit and we showed him some more of the cards we have received. They have now been left in his room so that the physiotherapist and nurses have something to talk to him about when they are working with him. We are going to take in a few photos during the next few days to pin up on the walls. Thank you to Pete and Pat from Suffolk for the card and kind words, Roger and Margaret read it to him on their previous visit - snail mail works extremely well.
There did not seem to be much change from before, except Dave now has his right arm restrained because he had been trying to pull out his trachy which is not a good idea at this stage! Jilly and Paul are visiting this afternoon, and Roger and Margaret will be going in this evening so I'll let you know later how Dave is today.
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Paul and I visited Dave yesterday afternoon armed with CDs and laptop! Having read that the day before Dave was sitting up, I misguidedly brought a camera with me so I could take a photo of the 3 of us, but this wasn’t possible on this occasion as Dave was lying flat. As soon as we both walked in and he heard our voices, there was an immediate response by way of him turning his head and left eye wide open. I sensed the expression was that of almost bewilderment, but perhaps that is to be expected. Without a doubt, he most certainly was well aware that our voices were familiar to him. We had to wait for a while whilst the nurse finished various tasks. She then tested his responses and both Paul and I saw him respond strongly on the right side and a little bit with his left hand too. With Dave lying flat it was very difficult for him to observe the photos on the laptop – not the easiest of tasks even for able bodied folks anyway, but he very definitely blinked his left eye to answer “Yes” in response in an effort to communicate when prompted which surprised us at first. So we said “You’ve blinked to say “Yes” can you do it again and he did! When we ran through photos of our canoeing on the Bras d’Or lake in Baddeck, Cape Breton, I definitely saw the left side of his mouth go up in a little smile, which happened again when we showed him a slide of Clive and Maggie kayaking altogether with Dave and I canoeing! Poor Dave had the responsibility of me in front of our canoe and had a worried look on his face trying to steer! This attempted smile happened several times, so Paul slowed down the speed of the slide show considerably to give him time, whilst we ran through it all over again. He definitely showed recognition and pleasure.
Paul had found a group photo taken at Milton Abbas of our trip en route to Lulworth Cove 2 years ago. This he had had this nicely framed and it now sits by the side of Dave’s bed. This particular trip included Sarah and Paul who left us at Milton Abbot and Paul, Dave and I. Most of my photos are on CD but I was able to leave a photo of Patrick, Dave and I climbing Smokey in Cape Breton taken in September 2007 together with a selection on CD. Dave started yawning then slowly fell asleep so we quietly left at that point.
Roger - It was nice to finally meet you briefly yesterday. I should have previewed and proof read my text more accurately before publishing it but never mind! I have annotated each file on the photo CD but the PC altered the order of the files so they are not now in event sequence! Sorry about that but whoever does another slide show for Dave, can look at the top left of the screen, where you can read something about the photo and where it was taken. Good luck!
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