first post from Max
Monday/August/2008 09:33 PM Barrie`s BlogBarrie`s
Blog
got to hospital in
plenty of time and made the white board up with big
letters, did not quite have enough room for X Y Z but
knew that they would not be required for any form of
this type of early communication, oh dear what a
mistake that proved to be!!!
Got in to visit on time and was not expecting too much, as have been disappointed on his progress in past visits. Anyway what a pleasant surprise Melanie and I had!! In complete contrast to last weekends visits, Daddy was alert on the case and completely himself with the exception of chatting!! I started by briefly asking him if he was in pain or had any discomforts that needed attending to, which he shock his head and portrayed that there was nothing that he would like to moan about that I could actually do anything about, so we quickly moved on and got on with the serious business of having a proper chat. We spoke about out journey, his car driving well, told him about the air con and brake pads that we had fixed and many other boys things, cars, bike etc. We taped up the big fluorescent colander that we made for him, showing days that people were visiting and told him that the Calendar finished in September as by then he would by on his way home, after of course, a quick couple of months in Paris!! I told him that he would have to consider himself a prisoner until then and we would be crossing off the days as if he were in jail awaiting his release date. He nodded and seemed quite relaxed about this temporary prospect of waiting a few more weeks before changing venue.
Anyway I explained to him that as easy as it was for me to say to him, that he must look at this position as being very!!
No head injury, spinal cord in tact and in addition to all this luck!! Still alive and with us! I then told him the sad sad story about the poor 18 year old next door to him who will never walk again. He seemed to agree that he had been lucky and things could have been a lot worst!! I was pleased that he saw the positive side to his unfortunate situation!
With his hands untied he wanted to ask me something and started pointing as his wrist, I asked him if he wanted to know the time, he shook his head, NO, how about the date??No! We could not work out what he wanted to say, he pointed at out white board and we tried to get him to point at the letters to spell out some words, this was not that easy, as his hand was not brilliantly co ordinated and a little shaky as could be expected after the huge amount of gear that ha pumped into him! Anyway we eventually go the R and then the O and then the L
ROL , we were tired and still were having problems working it out, then came the E
ROLE, now you know why we needed the letter that we left off the board!!! The X!!!! He wanted to know where his ROLEX was!!!! We all laughed and he rolled his eyes, as if to say in his sarcastic way, "at last, well done, yes you plonkers!! ROLEX!!!!!
This was the best moment that I have experienced since the accident!! I laugh with my DAD.
Anyway the rest of the visit was relaxed and ever thing was fine, I asked him if he wanted me to go through what had happened to him in the accident, he nodded, so I did explain everything in detail, I kept stopping at various stages, to see if he wanted me to keep explaining, he nodded and was keep to find out all the details, so I continued and told him straight what had happened to him! By the end he understood how lucky he was to have been alive!! All due to his heavy braking and reducing the speed of impact!!
There you have it, I stayed with him for hour and 40 mins, I left dripping wet with the heat.
Looking forward to visit today.
Got in to visit on time and was not expecting too much, as have been disappointed on his progress in past visits. Anyway what a pleasant surprise Melanie and I had!! In complete contrast to last weekends visits, Daddy was alert on the case and completely himself with the exception of chatting!! I started by briefly asking him if he was in pain or had any discomforts that needed attending to, which he shock his head and portrayed that there was nothing that he would like to moan about that I could actually do anything about, so we quickly moved on and got on with the serious business of having a proper chat. We spoke about out journey, his car driving well, told him about the air con and brake pads that we had fixed and many other boys things, cars, bike etc. We taped up the big fluorescent colander that we made for him, showing days that people were visiting and told him that the Calendar finished in September as by then he would by on his way home, after of course, a quick couple of months in Paris!! I told him that he would have to consider himself a prisoner until then and we would be crossing off the days as if he were in jail awaiting his release date. He nodded and seemed quite relaxed about this temporary prospect of waiting a few more weeks before changing venue.
Anyway I explained to him that as easy as it was for me to say to him, that he must look at this position as being very!!
No head injury, spinal cord in tact and in addition to all this luck!! Still alive and with us! I then told him the sad sad story about the poor 18 year old next door to him who will never walk again. He seemed to agree that he had been lucky and things could have been a lot worst!! I was pleased that he saw the positive side to his unfortunate situation!
With his hands untied he wanted to ask me something and started pointing as his wrist, I asked him if he wanted to know the time, he shook his head, NO, how about the date??No! We could not work out what he wanted to say, he pointed at out white board and we tried to get him to point at the letters to spell out some words, this was not that easy, as his hand was not brilliantly co ordinated and a little shaky as could be expected after the huge amount of gear that ha pumped into him! Anyway we eventually go the R and then the O and then the L
ROL , we were tired and still were having problems working it out, then came the E
ROLE, now you know why we needed the letter that we left off the board!!! The X!!!! He wanted to know where his ROLEX was!!!! We all laughed and he rolled his eyes, as if to say in his sarcastic way, "at last, well done, yes you plonkers!! ROLEX!!!!!
This was the best moment that I have experienced since the accident!! I laugh with my DAD.
Anyway the rest of the visit was relaxed and ever thing was fine, I asked him if he wanted me to go through what had happened to him in the accident, he nodded, so I did explain everything in detail, I kept stopping at various stages, to see if he wanted me to keep explaining, he nodded and was keep to find out all the details, so I continued and told him straight what had happened to him! By the end he understood how lucky he was to have been alive!! All due to his heavy braking and reducing the speed of impact!!
There you have it, I stayed with him for hour and 40 mins, I left dripping wet with the heat.
Looking forward to visit today.