Helen is continuing to try to be more positive - difficult though that is. Today she went for a short walk with the walker - made her feel pretty shaky. When I arrived at dinnertime she was sitting out of bed, at her own instigation, for dinner and she made herself eat almost all of the dinner - including a meat dish which she found tough but still she ate it! She shared some delusional thinking with me from the last few days which she no longer believes and has the insight to see was delusional.
On Sunday Louis was visiting her and waiting to get a call from Jennifer to say she was ready to go out for lunch with him. 2 hours went by and he heard nothing. Louis went off to the backpackers where Jennifer was staying and found that as she hadn't been able to figure out how to call his mobile she had just settled down to read a book and wait. They went for lunch.
Meanwhile over the next 2 days (and nights) Helen created a scenario in her head in which Jennifer had gone missing in Brisbane. None of us were able to call each other owing to not having each other's mobile phone numbers. Jennifer's New Zealand family were distraught and held us to blame. A search was being conducted for the missing NZ woman but without success. This occupied a fair bit of her night - worrying and coming up with further complexities and permutations. As this was during the period where she was unable to speak fluently she didn't tell anyone her belief and was not given any reassurance. Yesterday when I spoke of Jennifer's departure Helen did not feel she could tell me what she had been thinking. Today however she does identify this thinking as delusional. She plans to tell Dr A the psychiatrist tomorrow. She says she really believed her scenario while it was happening but now has let go of it.
Anyway - I thought I would share this both as an example of the fact that she is still psychiatrically quite unwell but also as I think it is encouraging that she was able to find her way out of this delusion on her own and when she told it to me was able to summarise and focus on the highlights rather than going right back into it.
When I left her tonight she was still sitting out of bed and listening to some Radio National podcasts about a book by Robert Dessaix that she is interested in.
We also shared some lovely cards and gifts that had arrived over the last few days and she was able to enjoy these - last time I showed her cards and letters all she could focus on was how overwhelming it was to receive them and it seemed to contribute to her feelings of guilt and worthlessness. So...I think there are improvements although she is still not well.
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