Day 66 Monday 27th October 2008

Wellington Day 40

Was it something I said

Tonight was a reminder if I needed one of how things could be taken for granted. I had spoken to Margaret about being careful with things and that opened the floodgates. She made me aware of the fact that no matter how she tried at some things she just could not do some things. Dr Sharma chose that time to visit and Margaret told him that she was feeling sorry for herself and asking 'why me'

Dr Sharma said it was no surprise as to how she was feeling. The only surprise was that it had taken so long to come about. He assured her that her position compared to the norm was quite spectacular. He has quite a few patients at present with various age ranges from teenagers upwards and some of the younger ones are progressing very slowly and even in wheelchairs after a year. He said it did not diminish Margaret's feelings but reassured her that he felt that she would make a nearly full recovery with the leg, 90%+ functionality with the arm and hand and the speech will only suffer from the odd missed word and will probably go unnoticed.

I was also reassured by the Doctors words but did also find it difficult as I told Margaret, as she said earlier, that I also wished we could wake up one morning and hope that it was all a dream and that I was sorry I could not make it go away but can only help her get better.

While we all celebrate each small victory and sometimes larger steps, it does come at a price in her hard work and endless frustration combined with being istitutionalised.

Still only four more sleeps to hometime.