The Up and Down Road

Today is Day 19 post stroke.

Day seems to be improving every day in small ways.

He has been raising his left arm right up high in a “Hitler” style salute (as they are his exercises) so now he adds in a finger across the nose in a mock moustache. (the patient opposite him is Polish, so Dad does it when he is watching!)

Last night he raised his left leg up an inch off the bed and has been wiggling his ankle, and that is the first time it has moved since the second stroke.

His catheter has been out for nearly a week, he still has a nasogastric tube in, but the speech path has upgraded his diet to soft. His swallowing seems to be pretty good, although there is a fair amount of delay sometimes in the right side when he tries to eat. That’s all part of the big swollen brain.

There was a mid-line shift in the brain itself, so much swelling has pushed it over, so now he leans a wee bit to the right, but that seems to be fixing itself slowly now to. There is a shit load on the net on Mid-line shifts. Most of it very scary.

Today is also the fist day of my holidays. I was intending to do quite a lot today, except the hospital called at 0745. Dad was a bit worse – he had passed a lot of clots in his urine this morning, quite a lot, and then they called again at 0945 – he had just projectile vomited a lot of coffee-ground again (nursey talk for blood) They were quite concerned. They had a flurry of activity and reviews by all different teams, and was listed for an emergency Endoscopy, to find out where all the blood was coming from.

Mum and I got in there pretty early and followed him up to the scope. He looked dreadful this morning, very pasty and almost yellow looking. Last night he was not flash, but better that he had been. He was getting all hot and clammy when we left – but the staff did not seem too concerned.

The scope revealed that he did in fact have ulcers.

Oesophageal Ulcers and quite a few of them.

Turns out 20 % of the population can have them and not know. Add Dad to the list. Hence all the burping, discomfort etc, and it explains all the hemorrhaging, after the aspirin.

What is still a mystery is the bleeding down below. That is quite concerning. I suppose they will get to the bottom of it.

Saturday. Rob and I ran the red-express to the Mount to get some stuff for mum and dad. We left at 0700 and we picked mum up at the hospital on the way home at 1900. Both of us were pretty knackered and maybe some driving skills were being questioned by the end of the trip. But we made it home in time for Dr Who.
We even managed to grab 8 pineapple tarts – Dad really enjoyed the one we took him on Sunday.

Anyway – Seeing my first day of holidays is nearly at an end I my as well go and be domestic – there is about 3 weeks worth of ironing to start! Aaarrrgh!