26th February: 'BIRCHed'

It has been some time since the Birch has been used in Australia (at least 50 years), but Simon has been well and truly 'birched' this week. By which I mean that he has been transferred to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Care in the Home team. This, in itself, is a misnomer since he has to travel approximately 6 hours per week to the Birch gymnasium in Felixstowe. One day per week some therapists see him at our home. It is always a strain transferring between teams, but this one has really stretched us. Simon feels quite intimidated by them because they keep suggesting that he is lucky to have his place on their programme and that if he doesn't come up to scratch in anyway they will throw him off. I don't like that kind of approach, but must hold my temper because we need all the help we can get in this next challenging stage of rehabilitation.

Fortunately, Jeremy, our vision therapist is a wonder and has given Simon a real lift every time he visits us. Today, Simon got to the end of our street, back again and into the house unaided using the powered wheelchair. We are still using the chair that we borrowed from Blake and his family. We have been told again that Simon is on an endless waiting list for the chair that he really needs (he will have to sit in it all day so it must be the right size). I think that I will just have to stump up and buy it. However, in the meantime he is getting safer working with this chair and that is encouraging.

Good news is that Simon has sent a paper for publication and has another under review for an A rated journal (with Matthew GC). I felt so shamed that my own publication record was so meagre by comparison that I dashed out two conference abstracts in one day.

We said goodbye to our care assistant, Tracie, this morning. The funding for her service ran out, now we have another team taking over from tomorrow. It is such a strange way of organising things. We were so happy with Tracie and she knew our routine. Also, she liked coming to see us first thing in the morning - apparently not all clients are pleased to see their Care Assistants and can get quite abusive. Simon and I both wept when she left this morning. I now have the task of training up the new assistant(s) in our morning routine. Hope they like us.

This morning, Professor Skippy Orlando, - the renowned, erudite, and elegant chap that he is - got into a scrap with the girl cat across the road and gave her a hiding! So bad that Sally, her owner, had to take her to the vet to be patched up. This is very embarassing. Skippy, however, does not seem to have any morals and believes that beating up female cats is perfectly acceptable. What to do? I could only apologise and offer to pay the vet bill. Sally wouldn't hear of it which was very kind of her.

Congratulations to Mel on landing an excellent new job. Also to my darling Aunt Dorrie on her birthday (90+). Good on ya, Dorrie.

Love Marian x

17th February: Simon's graduation

Today Simon graduated from his Rehab course at the Repatriation Hospital. Here you can see him proudly holding the certificate that he was awarded. Everyone was very pleased with the progress that Simon has made - this included taking a couple of steps using a walking stick for the first time.

Meanwhile, I am trying to fix up a trip to Beijing in June. Simon's consultant has agreed that he can travel with me providing we take some sensible precautions. It will be quite an adventure for us both.

Love Marian x

16th February: Peeling spuds

Tomorrow will be Simon's last day with the rehab team at the Repatriation Hospital. They have shared our journey for around five months and it will be sad to leave them. From here we move on to work with the BIRCH (Brain Injury) team that operates out of Hampstead. They are the bees knees, and have an exciting programme planned for Simon. For this he will need to travel twice per week to Felixstowe (about 1.5 hours each way), plus some therapy at home. The need for travelling is so that Simon can use the excellent gymnasium at Felixstowe and we know from past experience that he really needs this equipment to maintain and improve his physical strength. Also, the Royal Society for the Blind has offered us around 7 weeks of intensive therapy to improve Simon's ability to scan his right field of vision. This will help him to read, but also make him a lot safer when out and about in the wheelchair (we did have a fall recently). The RSB therapist, Jeremy, is a real lively chap; Simon and I took to him immediately, he almost bounces with enthusiasm, and the positive attitude that he exudes is just what we need. Jeremy will come to visit Simon at home three times per week, and plans to build up to outdoor training within a couple of weeks. So from here on, Simon has a full schedule of rehabilitation plus commuting to cope with. He is motivated and very determined.

There have been many achievements over the past couple of weeks, especially with reading and writing. Simon has amended a paper that is now ready for publication; today he peeled a potato (in the occ therapy session); and he is racking up around 30kms per week on the exercise bike.

Today we heard from Simon's old school-friend, Stephen Pantlin. He wrote us a really lovely email - both of us were in tears... Great that you two lads are in touch again.

Sorry that I do not get to blog so often these days. Pretty busy now that I am back at work. I think (fingers crossed) that we have sold the house at Brighton. Not the best price, but enough for us to walk away from it. I guess it will take a month or so to settle while the conveyancers and bankers do whatever it is that they do.

Love Marian x

7th February: An alternative Day on the Green

While most of Adelaide's music lovers rocked up to see Rob Thomas today, Simon and I spent a lazy afternoon at Red Poles listening to 'Baker Suite' a country/folk duo. The setting was exquisite: dinner in the garden under a shady umbrella, and just about the best food I have ever eaten. I have been scouting around for music venues that are accessible with the wheelchair (not many to be found, sadly).

Yesterday, I drove Simon around some of the wineries ending up at Shottesbrooke. Here we discovered that Robyn, the cellar door host, plays in a band called The Yearlings. Simon has four of their CDs. We are looking forward to catching up with their next concert in March.

Simon continues to make progress with his physio work and now regularly clocks up 10kms on the exercise bike. He did achieve 15kms in one session, but this was too much and knocked him out for most of the next day. There is movement returning in his right foot. This did happen before but the movement was involuntary and he was unaware of it. Now, he shouts 'hey hey' whenever his foot moves. This brings me dashing desperately to the rescue only to find him grinning and pointing at his foot!

I am managing to work and get most things done at home for the time being. Things will be easier once we have sold our old house at Brighton. Last week I had a nightmare with the pool cleaners. They phoned to say that they were topping the pool up with water and that I would need to turn the hose off in three hours (a 60km round-trip to turn a tap off). When I arrived, there was water running down the garden path. I found a pipe gushing everywhere, the shed three inches deep in water, and very little water in the pool. The pool cleaner had left the pump switched to 'waste' and it was rapidly emptying the contents of the pool into the shed and beyond. I was so furious that I had to wait and calm down for three hours before I could phone to complain. Fortunately, there was not much left in the shed but I know that there was a bag of cement on the floor - anyone got a jack-hammer?

Simon begins with some new therapists over the next couple of weeks. The BIRCH (Brain Injury Rehabilitation Team) come to meet us tomorrow for initial assessment. They offer therapy in the home. Later in the week we have an assessment by the Royal Institute for the Blind; they are planning some vision therapy for Simon which should help him to scan his field of vision more effectively. We continue to read together slowly. The backgammon is picking up speed (I am still winning - just).

Thanks to everyone for birthday cards and messages. Too old to count them from now on, let's just call them 'golden years'.

Love Marian xx