Stopping for a break

Anyway, back to the journey theme.

Martins journey to recovery is very much in progress and to date he's probably been travelling the A roads and about to join the motorway for the run to home. Things have slowed up in the last week however and the decision was made to restart the antibody treatment to kick start his progress.

I suppose it's the equivalent of stopping for fuel and having a break before continuing the journey (sorry - a bit cheesy I know)!

It was apparent that the physiotherapy wasn't helping to progress his recovery and Martin was still having a lot of discomfort from the pins and needles. His sight hasn't improved any further either...he's still seeing two clocks on the wall!

The week had started badly. I visited him on Monday night and he was really down. There have been staff shortages all week and on this particular day, help to get washed and to get to the toilet hadn't been readily available. Not being able to wash properly as he normally would really upsets him and it was made worse because he wasn't ready for his physio session. In fact the physios had to help with cleaning him up when they arrived to collect him. This meant the session was greatly reduced. When he returned to the ward his bed wasn't made from the previous night and didn't get made until about 5pm in the afternoon.

Perhaps all this doesn't seem too important considering how ill he's been and normally he would just get on with things, but it does tend to show how difficult life becomes as a result of his condition.

By Wednesday, he'd seen various doctors and consultants and had had numerous tests and checks. Seeing the consultant helped to emphasise his condition, particularly when he was asked to walk from his wheelchair to the bed which he wasn't able to do. It didn't seem like there was any understanding or realisation that whilst his outward appearance is pretty good (apart from his wobbly eyes) his mobility has nowhere near returned to normal. Perhaps we should be even more concerned that after completing the tests the doctor said 'I'm confused'!

But the decision was that Martin should be given a further course of the antibody treatment by intravenous drip to be be followed up with another MRI scan. As the course of treatment would be given over 5 days it immediately meant that the possibly of going home on Monday 31st was no longer an option.

So, he's now hooked up daily receiving the solution and ordered to rest. In fact, it looks like things could have been pushed on a little too fast so far so this is a chance for him to gain some strength and allow the treatment to kick start his continued recovery.

I don't think however that this is in anyway a setback. I just think this is part of a recovery process which isn't easy to predict precisely.

I'm absolutely positive that he'll very quickly restart the engine and get on his way!