Monday 30 April 2012

Stanmore Week 3

Day One:

We returned to Stanmore today and went to the rehab ward, we were told on Friday that we would be helped up to the new ward but when we arrived the porters made a big fuss about it. Eventually a porter brought me up to the private ward and I got shown my room. It is rather fancy! I have a tv, mini fridge, own sink and only have to share the bathroom with one other person. Very nice.

The first session of the week was the weekend review, overall we all did pretty well with our weekend goals. I did about 85% of mine so I consider that to be success. It was rather odd without the others who had left at the end of last week. It is going to be a rather strange week this week because there aren't going to be any new people this week.

Right after weekend review we had anatomy and healing. I'm not entirely sure why we were doing the same session that we had the previous week. Seemed like a waste of time. It didn't really help the people who were doing it the first time. We didn't really learn anything much new in that session.

After lunch I had cooking in the OT kitchen with Marta. The amount of times that I needed to be stopped because my posture was bad was incredible. Kept reaching for things behind me and going beyond normal (ROM). Definitely need to work on how I do things in the kitchen. She was really unhappy with the way that I get things out of my bag on the back of my wheelchair.

I had a chat with the OT about how the weekend went and how things were going. We decided that with my joints being as bad as they are that until I have the correct orthotics that we would be better off concentrating on making using the wheelchair safer. We are going to work on the shoulders a lot more, still work on the standing but not so much the walking side. The walking has been making my ankles, hips and knees a lot worse.

We had a session on pacing again which was another that we thought why bother? It was only third week people there and we already knew the principles. It was good for a refresher for this and have a think about our priorities rather than covering the whole theory of pacing again.

Day Two:

Today is pretty dead for me. I think they try to shove everything in the first two weeks so that people who are only around for two weeks get the whole deal but then the third weekers get left with not a lot to do.

Stretch went ok this morning, I get halfway through before the dizziness hits. It is normally after doing the stuff on the beds that I get really dizzy. I have been doing some of the standing stretches too which is some progress on not being able to stand at all for more than 5 seconds when I came in!

During physio we worked on sitting on a gym ball and catching a ball. Seems my catching skills aren't too bad, a lot better than the physio was doing. Will have to work on that while I'm at home. During our session I kept hearing the sounds coming from a wii. One of the other patients was playing wii as part of her physio! I really want a wii again and kind of regret getting rid of ours, good thing that they are so cheap. They use them here for practice with balance as it tells you if you are placing too much weight on one side or standing too far back. I finally got the physio to refer me to orthotics for my ankle braces that I need!

I had another session with the psychologist today and it really got me thinking about university and that I need to go part-time not just because I want to but because I NEED to. There is no point me carrying on when I am coming to resent doing the course and I am desperately struggling to keep up and failing miserably. I'd been thinking about it before I came here but now I really do need to take it seriously.

It's rather nice to have my own room and television because I can watch what I want rather than the rubbish that the others want to watch. I'm really not that into the soaps and quiz shows which is pretty much all the others wanted to watch. These tvs have freeview so I have a nice selection of channels to watch. Happy.

Day 3 - 5: 
These days were pretty dead for me as I didn't have many extra sessions built in so I had a lot of free time.  The Thursday we had pizza and blimey was it a big order! It feels weird to be going home but at the same time I'm really glad that it is over now.  I have set my goals for the next few months leading up to my follow up appointment and we are going to concentrate on making it safe for me to use my wheelchair.