And the good news is .... High functioning cognitive skills. There doesn't appear to be a lot of damage to mum's brain from the stroke. While she is having problems getting the words out, they're still there in the brain, just 'mis-filed'. From what the speech therapists were saying this afternoon, it's mainly names she is having problems with, but, if given the first sound, can often get them out.
I spent the morning at the hospital, with Bill and Mick, first talking to a (different sort of) speech therapist, who was going to check Brenda's swallowing reflex and breathing. Pneumonia is a huge problem because food and liquid can go down the trachea instead of the throat, if there is no cough reflex. Hooray - she can cough like a horrid coughy-thing!
Next was an occupational therapist. Thorough description of the house and mum's daily habits, discussion of what her normal routine is, how much she was able to do for herself etc. Gives them a baseline to work up from, and an idea of how much help will be required.
Had a quick lunch of Nacho's with David to bring him up to date, before going to get Becca from school and take her up to see her Grandma. They both handled it very well. I had told Becca enough so that she wasn't too shocked by the change, and we had to wait while the speech therapists finished their test, which gave Becca time to adjust.
Took Becca home, and went to college - 1 hour tutorial, 3 hour lecture - Logic and Language. As usual, Mark Strom had more to say than time to say it in, and he's now 4 weeks behind on lecture notes. He has admitted that he's not going to catch up, and we'll have to buy the textbook the lecture notes will be turned into. Sigh. Still another week before we get essay grades. The tutor is spending 6 hours a day marking, at 30-45 minutes per essay, with around 100 to mark. As usual, the lecture was a lot of fun.
Now I'm home, had a couple of crumpets, a glass of wine, and a glass of cranberry juice - feeling a lot better.
Almost time for bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment