One Year On

It is exactly one year ago today that Pete had his stroke.  It has been an emotional rollercoaster for both of us.  The year can be split into three parts.

1). Pete spent two months in hospital.  6 days in the stroke unit at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, then he was transferred to The Stroke Rehabilitation Unit at Bideford Hospital.  Looking back, it was on the Monday following his stroke (which he had on the Friday) when it seems all the damage was done, he had been doing well over the weekend, moving and with a little speech.  I was told he had not had a second stroke (still not convinced on that one) but that the brain damage was just progressing, but everything seemed to go that Monday.  Whatever, no good arguing the point, massive damage was done.  Pete did well at Bideford with intense speech therapy and physiotherapy and was able to come home on 11th September.

2). When Pete came home he had speech therapy and physiotherapy every day for 6 weeks and he continued to progress well physically, not so well with communication.  Then he was handed over to the community team who were equally as good and came often.  Pete was walking around the house with the aid of a quad stick, then a normal walking stick, and even a bit without a stick at all.  He walked around outside with a quad stick and the wheelchair was only used for going out when it involved a fair bit of distance, eg supermarket, hospital appointments, etc.  He could do a bit of dusting, helped make the bed, make cups of tea, peel vegetables, cook beans on toast or a bowl of soup, heat pies for lunch.  I went back to work with no qualms and Pete managed very well.  The communication side of things was still a huge problem, but we still had hope things would one day click back into place.  For the next seven and a half months we continued on a roll (only the occasional bad day or days) and the future looked fairly set for tiny improvements all the time. 

3).  Then everything totally collapsed for some reason.  Pete started getting urine infections, was diagnosed with urine retention and a catheter put in, then he was diagnosed with epilepsy and I was told he had had further mini strokes.  He got very very miserable and depressed (tried to take his own life) and has not been able to have any therapy sessions for ages, he has not set foot outside the house for weeks, despite the fantastic weather, and I have had to give up work.  So for the last two and a half months we have both been in a very bad place, with not much enjoyment in life at all.

Where will we be this time next year? In a better place I hope.  I think we have just about given up any hope of any of the communication tools being reinstated.  One of the hardest things to deal with is that our lives have changed so much, but everyone else can carry on as usual (as they should).  It gets terribly, terribly lonely at times.

Adrian came down last night and has gone back tonight, but even that has not made much difference to Pete's mood.  I thought he would be a lot more cheerful than he has been. 

And that is the story of the first year in brief.