Well, Helen came out of hospital last Thursday. Both Louis and I have found it a bit shocking that she is so physically debilitated since she was admitted. I think I had imagined that as she was in a rehab war with daily access to physio that she would at least maintain her capacity to walk and stand if not improve a little. In fact she is much much worse. I think this is cognitive as well as physical as she has really lost a consistent sense of herself in space which makes balance almost impossible. She tends to lean back when she tries to walk which makes forward progression difficult and falling likely. Things continue to fluctuate even with this and sometimes she's not too bad. Despite the physical deterioration she has been pretty good mentally up until the last 2 days and able to converse sensibly and remember all sorts of things.
For Louis and me the big impact of her decreased physical capacity is she is not able to toilet independently and this is hard for all of us. I think we will definitely need more nursing help in the near future whether that is at home or in a facility. The question of where that is needs to be considered more. Doug has been visiting which has been fun for Helen (and us). He is great at feeding her and has taken her on a few outings. He really agrees that it is worthwhile trying to get her to Darwin soon if it is at all possible so Louis and I need to have a serious think about that. Darwin Wordstorm starts next week - one of Mum's favourite events in the year. It would be great if she was fit enough to go to the odd event.
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