5th August: Simon plans to go shopping

Simon was upset when we arrived today, he said somebody had been nasty to him, they were angry with him but it wasn't his fault. We tried to get to the bottom of this but could not identify who the nasty person was - possibly a grumpy nurse, maybe he had tipped something on the floor. I did what I could to settle and reassure him. Whoever upset him can feel thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
This did unsettle him and he was not willing to do a session with the speech therapist today. She has arranged to come back tomorrow. However, the speech therapist was able to tell us quite a lot about his condition (Dysphasia) and Simon understood everything that she was saying. Most importantly, she explained to him that his intelligence was unaffected, just his ability to reach the right words and express himself that was troubling him. Numbers coming out instead of words is quite typical apparently. The registrar from the rehab hospital came to assess Simon this morning and said he is not quite ready, but will return to assess him again on Monday. I have explained to Simon what we need to achieve and how he needs to work with the physio to build his strength.
We looked at the blog on the computer again, this time reading backwards from yesterday for around a week. He was very pleased to see familiar names from the past, Helen, Jemima, Celine, several David's, and of course, Asher. He has asked me to load some movies onto the computer so that he can watch those when there is nothing good on the TV, I will attempt that tonight. Problematically, we are dependent on battery power in the hospital, so we only get a two hour run on one battery.
I have mentioned that Simon does not approve of the free newspaper that he is given each day, "The Advertiser", and I told him that I had been trying to source a Herald Tribune. At this point he became quite animated and I eventually understood that there were loads of lovely things he could buy but he doesn't have any money! It transpires that a trolley full of goodies is wheeled into the ward every morning, and Simon has been desperate to make some sort of purchase, but has been financially embarassed. He said that he had been trying to tell me this for days. So sorry, Simon, I should have known that you were desperate to go shopping. So now he has some cash and can go on a spending spree. I expect to see the trolley denuded before it reaches the next ward....
I took a good cup of coffee (from a proper coffee shop) up to the ward for him (he did ask for Black Coffee) but when I gave it to him he said "where's the milk?". So I got ticked off. However, he really enjoyed it, and it did seem to make him more alert.
I had another useful morning at work with a research student making good progress, a real enthusiastic man, originally from Liverpool and with all the wonderful power of expression that goes with that heritage. Another meeting with an undergrad making less progress but a jolly nice chap. Skippy goes to the vet tomorrow - hope he won't give us too much trouble.
Am going to have to re-think the driving into the City business. I am getting tired and stressed out by the traffic. Shirley and I may try to take the bus tomorrow. Not ideal because there is a bit of a walk for Shirley at both ends; we will take it slowly.
Some rotters devastated the pristine Botanic Gardens in Adelaide last night. They stole a construction digger and went on the rampage, finally ramming the little garden restaurant where I was planning to take Simon for his first outing when we get him into a wheelchair. The boys who did this had better not be English or I will die from shame.
Just when I called the Mumbai Stock Exchange it took a dive, don't pay any attention to me....

Love Marian x