Update 19

These two ladies made the news in Europe recently. It appears that whenever they are out and about in town, the rate of motor accidents by men drivers increases by as much as 15%!!!! - ED
Now there's a dress made just for Claudine! - ED



Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Dear friends / Readers

Claudine has been able to bath herself for the past week. it's a big step forward for her. Her balance is her biggest problem, but she uses the walker till the bath, then holding onto any and every thing in sight, manages to get herself into the bath. Once in the bath she can help herself, including shaving - even though it's very shaky (but it's a good exersise for her motor functions), and she can get out, once again using anything / everything she can find to hold onto, till she gets onto the bath rim. Then, slowly, she manages to get her legs out, and up onto the walker and then into a chair so that she can complete the drying off process, and get dressed.

Around the house she uses only the walker, and every now and then tries to walk unassisted. Step by little step, all along a wall, to the stairs, then upstairs to the first floor, and I follow bringing the walker for her. However, when we go out, she still uses the wheel chair.

Her right arm, which was "lame" is now working much better. Still slow, but there is a lot of progress. Sometimes I need to remind her that she has a right arm! Claudine tends to do everything with her left arm, and that's the arm that shakes the most! Then we have "incidents", as we had again today. When we are finished at therapy / rehab, we go to the restaurant to wait for her Dad, and whilst we wait, we order something. She ordered a "Eiskaffee", what we call in South Africa a coffee-float. # balls of ice-cream in a big glass, over which they pour ice cold coffee, and on top, cream and chocolate flake sprinkles!! (ED - sounds damn fine!) She is crazy about them, and so it's her treat.
When she got hers today, she picked it up with her left hand (the seriously shaky one), and with her first sip she choked! - which she still does often, and her arm jerked, and knocked the glass over. The whole lot was spilled over her nice clothes, and onto the bench and floor! And the glass fell and shattered on the floor! So, these things do happen, but it's still bad for her when it does.

Apart from this, they do a lot of exercise with her arms, as I requested it. She still does not have proper use of her arms. It's very slow going, and she can't even comb / brush her own hair. Her right arm can't get up high enough, or far back enough, to reach.

her memory is so much improved!!! She can't remember the last year of her life before the accident. She can't remember her brothers wedding. It's still very strange for her to think she has a sister-in-law in Australia, especially whenever we talk to them on Skype. But, she has no memory from about Std.8. Some bits and pieces here and there maybe. She has a "view" of the overall picture, like some teachers, and the time she worked at Foreign Affairs - most of who she worked with. Of Kimberley she has a good memory of all of you guys, but has no recollection of the house on the farm where she was staying. Claudine remembers Johan from when they went out in Pretoria - but not of their love from shortly before they were to be married. For me it's a blessing in disguise, because I don't think she would be able to cope if she had to remember all those beautiful moments, day after day. She does not cry as much for Johan as she used to, but the photo album is so worn already from her looking through it every day / night till she fell asleep. I have now made her put it away in her cupboard. It was really making her very depressed.

Short term memory:- That which she couldn't remember from the day before, she now has a very good recall of! And it's getting better all the time. The Neurophysiologist gives her stuff to read that would be of interest to her, and then, the next day asks her questions about the piece she had to read..... and she's doing very well! With anything mathematical she's doing very, very well!

Her speech is much improved. You can understand every word she says, no longer the slurred, un formed words of a few weeks / months ago (ED- See previous note on speech). She still speak in "monotone", but very clearly. (ED - I think the ability to accentuate words so as to get expressive speech is learned as we go along, so she will soon learn this as well!)

Her therapists / Doctors are also doing some test work on her, which is not commonly done as yet. Brain stimulation. I'm very grateful of the opportunity, but they need to be very careful, as they are working with the brain, and don't want anything to go wrong. They stimulate the places where the machine shows, using magnetic resonance, that there is a form of damage, as a result of the accident. (ED- could be torn / cut / bruised....), and where the normal function of flow of information is disrupted. They stimulate the area, and the theory is that they want to get thocse cells "working" again, as they may only be "dormant", so that the messages can once again flow through to the nerves and the rest of her body.

She has only had two of these sessions, and already her "tested response speed" has improved by 25 seconds! This is the ability to perform certain functions within a specified time. She was tested before the first session, and again following each one. I'm keen for them to move the stimulation down to the brain stem, as this is where most of the damage was done which affects her "Ataksie", and which is her biggest problem which is preventing her walking, and causing balance problems. But, we will leave that in the hands of the Lord, and pray that He will decide whet the process should be from here.....

Her "stiff" neck is all but repaired! She used to walk a bit like a goose !(LOL - ED), with her head forward and down. It's mostly due to the big neck operation she had, and the muscles that got tight after the operation, and she still had continued pain where they had operated. Well, the pain is much reduced, and the muscles are getting much better. They did warn us that she would probably lose up to 50% of her neck movement, especially to the left and right. But we have healed this through prayer!!! The Lord is truly incredible!!! You can almost no longer see that she has a neck problem, and cant turn her head as far right or left as we can. Every Thursday she gets a special massage of / for the neck, and it's done her the world of good.

We have made her as comfortable as possible here at home. She has a massive room which is now fitted out like a little apartment. She has her own TV, music system,, etc. She's very happy with it, and we just have to keep getting her DVD's and CD's. But don't for a minute think she's not driving us crazy with wanting to return to South Africa!!! She actually believes she can go back alone, and be able to cope! She does not realise that there is no way she could cope alone. She can't even make herself a cup of coffee, as the jerking of her arm could cause her to spill the boiling water all over herself! She cries a lot, especially when she starts with " You all don't understand that I will get better quicker,, and will be happier if I was back home....".

She's very lonely. I can see it again today. The poor therapists are all the conversation she gets. She has no one of her age to talk to, and no one from South Africa who invites us around to visit either. So she just wants to talk to the therapists all the time, and they need to get their work done as they only have her for 45 minutes.

Wow, that's a lot of information. We are making progress, slowly but surely. It's still a long road ahead, but with Gods help we will see through this terrible "season" in our lives.

Love to all, Alta