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As some of you already know, Mum’s independent living trial finished early on the weekend as she required more medical support than could be provided in a one-on-one carer situation. Mum was in a great deal of pain and had to be moved back to Bed 42 on Sunday. Part of the independent living was…

At the family meeting a few weeks ago, Mum’s Allied Health team made the decision that Mum’s rehab progress had flattened out and so it was time for her to transition. This week, Mum and Dad moved into an Independent Living Unit at SACU to trial a permanent carer relationship. The units are a part…

Today, Mum updated the poem about the patient call button that she wrote in Mornington so it applied to the unit here in Townsville (that I’ve dubbed SACU). She’s called it Ode to the Toot as the patient bell here sounds more like a subtle tooting than the loud chime in Mornington. She’s also working…

Mum can successfully transfer into and out of Dad’s car! Such an amazing achievement, we decided to put it to the test today and take her for a spin in Dad’s CRV. Of course, Dad’s car is higher than your average vehicle and that’s the only reason Mum can do a pivot in and out. Getting into and out…

As an addition to my last post, it now appears that Mum does indeed have a “broken bum”. Mum was apparently in a lot of pain in physio yesterday so the radiologist looked at her x-rays again and has now concluded she has a hairline fracture of the pubic ramus. So that last big fall was, in…

Mum’s had a couple of bad falls recently, the worst of which was on Friday last week. It seems she’s been falling asleep constantly: a phenomenon they’re putting down to tiredness and possible sleep apneoa rather than something a little more exotic like narcolepsy. (Although between you and me, that fact sheet kind of sounds like her; she’s even been known…

Last Monday,  I had time to look in on Mum’s OT session before heading back to Canberra after my rushed long weekend in Townsville She’s now having showering lessons twice a week but this session was about working on her left-side neglect and spatial awareness. Because of Mum’s teaching background, she tends to “cheat” on…

It’s been just over five months since Mum had her stroke and it’s been a long, frantic, uncertain and eventful time. Coming up to six months, I’m going to try to document the gains Mum has made in that time and to continue to update the blog more frequently. For now, Mum is the Sub-Acute Care Unit…

It was State of Origin last night; an annual event that I openly admit often passes me by. However, my sources in Townsville have leaked that Mum was given a leave pass last night for some SOO festivities. I have a photo as proof but am in negotiations with the source to come out publicly…

Both occupational therapy and speech therapy are more than just about learning and re-learning skills: both also include socialisation. A right-hemisphere stroke can have a significant impact on communication (I’m doing up a blog post on this at the moment and will publish soon) so organised social interaction is an extremely important therapy. Mum often  had…