Day 5

Today i am grateful for my Dad. He is just awesome.

So far, since he has been on the ventilator, it has been frustrating for Colin to try tell me what he wants or when he needs medical assistance. I have been using the spelling thing – where I say the letter of the alphabet so he can spell what he needs, but it is a bit laborious, and takes time. My Dad said we can use what he called a binary chop to almost replicate an algorithm for guessing the next letter without having to recite all 26 letters every time.

He drew me up a template which i have transposed onto a small white board so we can more quickly get to the letters by essentially only having to guess 1 of 2 (or 3) instead of 1 of 26.

My Dad has been an invaluable help to me, and this is a perfect example of how he is helping me. He just does the practical stuff and I don’t know how I would be able to do it without him. Again, thank you to everyone who is rallying around me – I have so many people who are pulling for us, and I am at a loss for words to express my gratitude.

Tomorrow morning Colin will have his tracheostomy, and we can see how he will improve from there. Good luck my love – we will be there when you wake up.

XxX