Thursday, October 11, 2018

Message Nineteen

Today we spoke to the parents of the patient in the bed next to Elizabeth.  This lad is 21 and had a brain haemorrhage at work a week ago. After brain surgery, he is still in a coma.  We pray for his parents and his many visitors.  His situation looks worse than Elizabeth's. 

Elizabeth had speech therapy with S today.  It was very interesting to watch.  First, S massaged Elizabeth's face to desensitise her to touch.  Then she massaged her cheeks.  She then got Elizabeth to move her tongue around her mouth, and to touch her own face.  We learnt how this is important, so that Elizabeth is giving her body bio-feedback and starting to make new neural connections. S could feel Elizabeth's swallow was developing well.  Elizabeth got the idea and spent the rest of the day experimenting.  We also used the letter chart.  She was able to tell us more about the nights when we are not around.  It was heartbreaking to hear that she has been experiencing terrifying vivid hallucinations in her dreams.  She knew that they were not real, but said she was very scared.  Elizabeth asked you to pray that she will be free from this horrible experience.

We saw Anny again this morning which was lovely, and Liz did the usual physio, going on the 'tilt table', to experience what it is like to be vertical. Eliz continues to make progress in holding her supported head when seated.  She has been feeling very thirsty, which is a problem people face if they are tube fed.  They don't feel the benefit of a drink straight into their stomach.

Andrew and Margaret's good friend Dave came over from Grassington, and we went out to lunch together.

We ended the evening by joining our host, and now friend, Helen, at the local pub in Loxley.

4 comments:

  1. I had to get up in the night to see if there was a post for the day. How wonderful to hear of these improvements and how we will get team Australia to pray whilst we sleep about the hallucinations. We pray also for the lad in the next bed.

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  2. Your whole family are amazing. Faith, realism, hope. We prayed at Life Group for you.

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  3. Yeah, will be praying for the hallucinations. That does sound rough. It's good that Elizabeth is getting speech therapy though. That's encouraging.

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  4. What a difficult last three weeks it has been for you. But already there has been a lot of progress.

    Do the doctors know why the haemorrhage happened in the first place?

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