Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Moving day

Did you miss the blog entry last night? We couldn’t find any where to plug in so when you get to read this you will know that we have made a connection!

Where to start with yesterday? Cheryll had to be at the hospital by 8.00 in the morning to travel with Joel. Someone more urgent than Joel needed the ambulance and so they had to wait for the next free one. It made a long start to the day but hey, what’s a few more hours sitting in the hospital?!

Eventually we made it to Ranui. Let the fun begin. Cheryll was helping to wheel Joel out of the ambo, lost her footing and fell with one leg caught between the two ramps. She must have been close to snapping her leg and bruising and swelling started nearly immediately. So she is walking…just. Joel was stuck in his room and we got a tour and explanation of what goes on. It creates funny emotions being here. on the one hand hope and expectation and on the other, when you see the severity of others, it is a fairly heavy sorta place to be in. then that turns to excitement when you see how well Joel has done and realize the extent that his healing has progressed and that almost makes you feel guilty when you look at some of the others.

Joel was adamant that he had been on two ambulances yesterday. He couldn’t work out where the other one had taken him and seemed confused and got a bit ‘towey’ when we said there was only one trip. Explaining that he had come from Hamilton Hospital to Auckland to the rehab center wasn’t enough for him…then…we realized we were a bit slow; he was having memory snippets of the accident. He kept saying that the other trip didn’t take long and that it was real short (unconscious at this stage).

Most of the time what he says is in the right context, particularly any comments to do with the immediate or the distant past. But sometimes he comes out with something that shows confusion. He told Hannah that this morning he had gone for a walk with Mathew and then went for another walk with Adam. Both Mathew and Adam had visited the previous day; sadly the ‘walk’ was wishful thinking at this stage. But it is encouraging to see him start to recall stuff that would be classed as short term memory. He also found his remote for the bed and started pushing the button and went up then down. The up and down went on for a while and when asked what he thought he was doing he said he was bored and that it was helping. He starts working with the physio and occupational therapist today.

So we continue to pray for his restoration to be complete and it seems that God hasn’t finished with us either. He is continuing to ‘deal’ to us and we have bouts of ‘leaky eye syndrome’. Thank you for everything.

3 comments:

noel& Ruth said...

Thanks for the update. I shared with the church on Sunday about Joels progress as they have all been praying for him and prayed for him last Monday at our prayer and fasting day. As a church we have been through this with one of our young woman a few years ago. I shared with you at the hospital, that she is now married with two lovely kids. We broke off any negative words from the well meaning, medical staff spoken over Joel at the prayer meeting last week, which is what we did with Jo. The medical staff told her family that she would not recover as her brain damage was very severe. She started communicating by spelling out the words by squeezing her mums hand, and the rehab people rushed her up to rehab. When she came out of rehab she went back to university and got her masters in English, not an easy accompishment as she had to have someone with her writting her notes etc.She had to learn to walk and talk again, and when she walked down the aisle for her wedding there wasnt a dry eye in the place. Just felt that I needed to share this with you. Sorry to hear about your accident with your leg will continue to uphold you all in prayer as a family. Will send you a txt, got your cell ph number from Beatrice.
Love Ruth and Noel

Bronwyn Carroll said...

Hi to you all. I heard about Joel from a friend of his and want you to know that my prayers are with you all as a family. I can relate to a lot of what you are reporting in your blog, having recently had 2 years of hospital experiences with our teenage daughter (then) who was diagnosed in March 2008 with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She went to Waikato hospital for her treatment in 2008 and then to Auckland in 2009 for a Bone MArrow Transplant. Most of those 2 years were spent in hospital - and I was her support person - ending up leaving home myself for a great deal of that time. It IS hard. But like you, we found God provided for us all - sometimes at the last minute - but ALWAYS we were looked after. Hang in there. If any of you get time on your hands and want to check me out I have recently started my own blog - and I joined facebook when Victoria was in Waikato Hospital - it became a wonderful outlet for me when I was away from home. my blog address is www.bonafidegrownup.blogspot.com Remember to look after yourselves and make sure you are all healthy too, as you travel this road. in our prayers and thoughts, Bronwyn

donna said...

Thank you so much for your blog. With all that is going on in your lives I find it incredible that every day you keep us all informed with what's going on. You are touching countless lives with this site! In the midst of you so needing to be supported, you tirelessly minister to all of us, visitors, bloggers, texters etc etc. God bless the Robertsons and thanks again.

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