Message Fifty Five

Yesterday, at the end of the day when we were all together, Elizabeth prayed for us all.  "Thank you God for teaching us your patience."  There is some work to be done in me.  We had just had one of those days that ended in me composing a written complaint.  Liz had an appointment with the Orthoptics  (eye muscles) Department in the Royal Infirmary.  This went well, with an agreement that Liz's sight difficulties are not going to be addressed with glasses or prisms.   Her left eye in particular, oscillates, but it is getting better. Then we had to wait for the ambulance to take Liz back to the other hospital. Despite assurances that it was coming, we had to wait over six hours.  If we had known this before, I would have found her a disabled friendly taxi.  It was pretty painful for Liz, but she did not complain once.  I mused that this is likely to be a small taste of the powerlessness that people with disabilities experience all the time.  The Head of Orthoptics came and visited Liz to apologise, though there was nothing she could have done.  We experienced a day in the life of a busy Orthoptics clinic, with lots of young children wearing eye patches and playing as they waited with their own Play Specialist, who also offered us pens and paper to pass the time.  The ambulance drivers, when they came, were friendly and did their job well.

Today Katie (Speech Therapy) agreed that Liz can drink normal water, and eat normal food.  Liz also moved into a normal wheelchair.  She demonstrated how she can now get around.  With only one arm working, it was really only moving around in a circle.   Liz informed us that earlier today she stood for a few seconds with her physios before she collapsed onto them.  She said it was quite painful holding herself up.  As a distraction from the pain, Liz and her Physios sang Disney songs together, including "Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog.  Liz told me to put that in the blog.  She is aware that it's not the complete truth, but it's a nice up beat song. She thought her grandmothers might like to hear it, so if you are interested, click on the title!