Day 37

Another lovely day with my lovely.

He had another surprise for me – he is able to move his left thumb just the teeniest bit.

Today, I got to do his bladder washout for the first time. You essentially syringe a specific amount of saline into the catheter, and then suck it back out about 3 or 4 times until the saline is clear. It is not too bad an issue if it is a dark colour, but the thing you are looking is to make sure the catheter is not blocked. Not sure what you would do if it is blocked, but that is a learning for another day. I am trying to learn a new thing all the time so that when it is time for him to come home I won’t have to have all the knowledge dumped into my head at the same time in case I forget something. I am also doing an online course for carers and it is extremely useful. I am learning about various technical things, what I can expect, what sort of care will be involved, and so on. It is really cool.

I also did his leg physio today. The physios said there are certain things he needs to do over the weekends (or long weekends) when the physios are not there, and today I did his leg exercises with him. I will say this: they are MUCH stronger than they look. Colin’s primary physio is a really petite lady called Valerie, and she can do all these moves for him and with him and make it look so effortless. She also works on several people a day. I could barely get through Colin’s exercises. HA HA. I know there is some technique involved, but I will need to gain strength to help Colin with all sorts of things, and I am looking forward to the challenge.

Colin has a bacterial infection which he has actually had since the ICU. They passed it off then as a heat rash, but it just stayed. When Colin went to rehab, I pointed it out to the Doc a few times but she also sort of fobbed it off. At the start of this long weekend, Colin was seen by one of the other Doctors, and she immediately identified it as a bacterial infection, and said the Nurses must wash it with a specific soap, and use Bactroban on the pustules and within a day they were already looking better. We were instructed to all wear aprons and gloves just in case we passed on the infection to the other patients, but it seems to be under control now. Colin has also been complaining, almost since he has been at the rehab, that there is something scratching him on the back of his neck, but every time any of us looked, we could not see anything. I have sometimes been able to help by untwisting his trachy tape, or by moving the position of the trachy tape or padding in the neck brace, but it seems to always be there. Today, that same Doc (not Colin’s one) looked at Colin’s neck and saw that one of the pustules was directly under the padding of the neck brace, and that it is the culprit of his scratchy. She also said that the trachy tape is gross and needed to be changed immediately before the collar was put on again. Long story short, there was no trachy tape available, but he did get to spend the day with his neck free of the cone of shame. 😀 He will be really sad tonight when they put it back on tonight. The other Doc, today, said that the collar is prrobably not 100% necessary anymore, but it is standard practice and so it will have to stay on until the due date which looks like 25 April. 10 more days, and he will be able to shave the neck beard. I have been shaving him, but am too nervous to go too close to the trachy. It is also itchy for him, but he understands. Here is a pic of him smiling because the cone of shame is not on for a bit.

Today I am grateful for nature and ladybirds. My Mom and I have always loved the little red and black dotted beetles, and today I saw one on my marshmallow geranium. It was like a little present, but it also reminded me to always be on the lookout for beauty and joy. All the time.