Look at the birdie...

When I arrived to pick up Nelson this morning I was greeted in the corridor by a couple of the nurses who said Nelson was looking .... well, I'd find out - but it was cute. Tantalised, I made my way upstairs and found Nelson was in the lounge.... Looking, well, like this:

 

There were all manner of birds wandering around the room, including one pink and one blue fluffy chicken. And not just birds, a rabbit and goodness knows what else - amazing! Kris and John from Kris's Feathered Friends were visiting to entertain the residents in the most incredible way.

Once I'd arrived they weren't going to leave me out and insisted I join the group for some shots with Nelson. I can't believe how warm a dove's feet actually are.

Thanks very much to John for sending these photos to me for inclusion in the blog. Kris said she was curious about Nelson because he seemed so bright and happy and wanted to know why. After looking at the blog they attribute it to his many supportive friends and family. I second that and thank you all!!

Oh and after the birds we went off to see the applied kinesiologist/chirpractor again who re-set Nelson's body clock and ramped up his thyroid to keep him a bit warmer. He said Nelson has made quite a bit of progress since our last visit there which is encouraging! Nelson was totally exhausted when we got back but managed to stay awake while I rushed off to bring back take-away. I couldn't believe how much he managed to eat! I was stuffed full myself and only managed cheese on toast much later for dinner.

Bowled over

Brenda has been visiting most days which Nelson has been enjoying immensely.

Raymond, Bev and Jacinta visited yesterday and left Nelson a comfy beanie to keep his head warm. It has certainly added to his very unique sartorial style!! (Think camo and checks plus different length multiple layers in the same outfit). All jokes aside, the hat is actually just what he needed since he always seems to be so cold and his hair is alarmingly thin on top these days.

Brenda visited in the afternoon and I suddenly received a phone call from her with Nelson wanting to check with his social secretary that he could go bowling tomorrow... He sounded like an excited little boy.

Well, today he actually did go bowling, participating in a trip organised by the nursing home for the first time.  He seemed to really enjoy it although he told me that he hadn't scored very well. This is a really clear sign that he is more accepting of being in the home at least for now. That means that he can be a bit happier a bit more often, and spend his limited energy on getting better rather than resisting.

Re-visiting old friends

Today I took Nelson to see Brent and Sophie at their house. Nelson used to work in an office on the ground floor of their place, and they are now packing up to move out. We thought that before they vacate Nelson might like to see it again.

We ate bacon and eggs on their lovely deck and Nelson enjoyed a little chat with their friendly cat!

Nelson gave quite a bit of advice about living out of a 4 wheel drive as Brent and Sophie plan to see quite a bit of Australia over the next 6 months.

While we were there Nelson watched Brent's new film about the Tarkine and declared it "breathtaking". I agree with him! See it for yourself.

Children visit on ANZAC Day

The children and Isobelle visited Nelson today. Isobelle reported: "It was a good visit and Nelson was very happy to see us. We found him dressed and in bed with the curtains drawn. He soon got out of bed, had something to eat and took his tablets. He was talkative and happy. 

 

 

"We had a short walk outside for 10 minutes and he was in good spirits. He commented on some of the plants outside and remembered when the boys were small and Lyndon had an allergic reaction to the pear vine. He talked about his computer work, 6 times a day and says he manages 4-5 times which is terrific.  He waved us off from the small front deck."

 

 

When Nelson's sister Brenda visited a couple of hours afterwards in the afternoon, Nelson told her all about the visit and how sad he'd been that they all left "so soon".

Family Days

Brenda has visited Nelson on many days this week, taking Elaine with her on Thursday.

David and Mel had a visit on Friday morning, going to the front verandah with Nelson as he hadn't wanted to go for a walk outside in the heat.

In the afternoon I met Brenda there and at her suggestion I brought a few of Nelson's favourite photographs of the children. He was asleep when we got there but I put the photographs up where he can see them from the bed. When he woke up and saw them he said, "That's nice!" with a smile. This is a real contrast to his agressive attitude of a month ago when he was taking everything down and demanding that it all be taken home. It was almost as though he was afraid that if he allowed it to be home-like for him he'd never leave.

He looked at each photograph and commented, remembering that the one of me with Darius looking very much like a pixie was one of his favourite photgraphs of us. When he saw this one of all the children (above), I was surprised to hear him say, "All of them, how lovely. That one's at our place and that's what I really like about it - that didn't happen often.".

Today Brenda, Darius and I arrived while Elaine, Eric and Nathan were still there so together we managed to break into and eat a pomelo  (hard work!).

No sooner had the Teoh family left than Hilton arrived. That was a good moment to take the increasingly hungry and tired Darius off home and leave Nelson to go inside with Hilton and eat his dinner.

Picnic in the park

Yesterday Brenda and Hilton visited, taking Nelson for a little walk down the road while they were there. Hilton gave Nelson a once over so that we could sit down later and plan his supplements.

Today Russell and I took Nelson on a picnic in the nearby park. It was such a lovely day - sunny but not too hot, and the park was nice and quiet. We ate green salad, chicken and a few other yummy things. Nelson seemed to especially appreciate the green salad and he ate a huge helping of chicken. Don't worry, the wine was "de-alcoholized" (read "not actually very wine-like").

We had quite good conversation for well over an hour and later on Russell commented on the huge improvement he saw since he'd seen him in Balmain hospital at the end of January. He felt Nelson followed most of the conversation quite well, and contributed a reasonable amount. There were times when Russell didn't know what Nelson was talking about, but mostly I was able to "translate".

As soon as we got back Nelson organised to go and do his computer exercise and was then very ready for a big sleep.

Art direction

Brenda had a plan to set up paints and canvasses to see whether Nelson would paint with her, so we took all the materials and set them up on the front verandah. Brenda amused Darius by managing to actually wear all the paintbrushes in her hair! Some people seem to just ooze imagination and fun!

After Darius and I left Nelson had a nap for an hour and did his computer exercise, then Brenda started to paint. She said Nelson didn't want to paint, but was happy to art direct her, getting quite insistant when he felt she was going to do the wrong thing. When we picked her up a few hours later she had done 2 lovely paintings.

Rebecca arrived to do accupuncture on Nelson just as we were getting ready to leave - good timing! I am so grateful to Rebecca for tirelessly giving him treatments.

New business

Yesterday Brenda arrived in Sydney and surprised Nelson by visiting with Janette. He was very pleased to see her, as he told me excitedly today. Janette re-hung the crystals she had brought Nelson some time ago so the room looks and feels much better.

Today I found out that Nelson's room mate Peter had passed away after a very rapid decline.

Fellow MBA student John Edwards joined Darius and me visiting Nelson today. We found him in the upstairs common room reading the newspaper. They had quite good conversation about business and the people they know together. John said that he'd really been struck by Nelson's weight loss but that, as always, he had enjoyed Nelson's company.

I was told that by the time we arrived at 10 am Nelson had been on the treadmill in the gym and had also been outside for a walk as well as down to do his computer exercise! I also found out that Nelson has put on 4.7 kg since he came to the nursing home - now up to 66.7. It's so good to know he's gradually gaining weight.

After John left Nelson found a $10 note on the bed which I presume had fallen out of John's pocket. When asked, "How much money is that?", Nelson replied straight away, "Ten dollars". When he was in hospital the occupational therapist found that Nelson had difficulty telling the difference between dollars and cents. Obviously my flippant question wasn't actually a real test, but it does seem that some of these things are returning to Nelson.

Auspicious new year

This morning my parents, Darius and I had a traditional breakfast with Darius' carer Domanee, her family and the other parents and children to celebrate Singhala New Year. Of course Nelson was upset not to have been able to attend it too, but very much enjoyed the food they gave me to take to him later in the day. He had fish "cutlets" - very tastie balls of fish and potato, coconut milk rice and a lovely sweet made with rice flour with a filling that might have been nuts. Nelson sent a very special thank you to Domanee and Nandana for thinking of him.

Along with the dishes I took to Nelson, the rest of us also ate some very yummy chicken curry. Darius thought it was all so nice that he ended up standing in the kitchen helping himself directly from the table! I am told he refused his own food all day, asking instead for the Sri Lankan food for lunch too - yum!

This lovely invitation was made by Domanee's neice and has a betel nut leaf attached.

Lunching...

Monday was a big day. Nelson remembered from my telling him on Friday that we were going out, so he was ready and waiting when I got there. We made the big trip to Rhodes to visit Ian who had been Nelson's boss.

When Nelson was waiting in the foyer, several people had found out he was coming and just had to come and say hello to him. He recognised every single person although initially they were a bit phased by the lack of either beard or mo! Nelson obviously remembered the office building and was adamantly telling me I couldn't leave the car in front of the main entrance when we arrived!

We ended up having lunch upstairs in the quiet and pleasant environment of the company lunch cafe and Nelson and Ian had a good chat, including agreeing to go on a long ago planned fishing trip when Nelson is up to it. I completely forgot to take any photographs!

Nelson noticed one previous co-worker walk into the cafe and when Ian mentioned him by name Nelson said, "I've just seen him" and was pleased to be able to say hello. Renee of course got a huge hug.

By the end of a hour and a half Nelson was totally exhausted and was almost asleep in the car on the way back. He was asleep on the bed in a minute flat.

When it came to going out today for yum cha with John "the cheeseman", Nelson was still pretty tired from the day before so he was a bit quiet and didn't deal so well with the noise once a few people arrived in the restaurant. Even so, this is a far cry from how he was a few short months ago, being totally unable to stand a floor polisher machine in the same room.

Weekend variety

Another accupuncture session was given to Nelson by Rebecca on Saturday. I'm sure this is really helping.

 On Friday I noticed that the home had "Art Therapy" on Saturday morning and despite my encouragement, Nelson didn't attend.

Sunday Nelson was visited by his good friend Richard which Nelson really enjoyed. Hilton also dropped in during the afternoon, but the next day Nelson reported not having been able to follow his conversation very well.

Friday nap

My mum came with Darius and me to visit Nelson today. As we were arriving we crossed paths with the Diversional Therapist who told me that Nelson has been reminding her to take him down to look at the brain stimulation program on the computer (6 times a day he does it).

I also noticed that he has managed to take all the anti-fungal herbal tablets - 2 of them 3 times a day which was such a stretch for him to even think about managing to do himself at first - fabulous!

Nelson was in bed having a sleep when we arrived, but got up and had quite a good play with Darius for a while on the front balcony. I was very pleased that Mum could take charge when Darius got a bit too boistrous. We left when Nelson's dinner was due to arrive in his room.

Yesterday James and MaryAnne visited and reported they'd had a good chat with Nelson. Rhonda told me recently that Nelson had been able to tell her that it was MaryAnne who had left the pile of art magazines for him at her last visit.  As he put it to Rhonda, "that's a lot of Looks" and he told me he had been, "reading some of them quite intensely".

Happy Easter

When I visited Nelson on Sunday he remembered that he had an Easter egg for Darius in his bedside drawer. I am not sure when it had been given to him, but it is a very good sign that he remembered!

Our visit was brief since I had a very wiggly and tired little boy with me, with minor bruises and lacerations to go with the 3 stitches in his head from Friday afternoon's adventures - head first over a 1.5m drop...

James reported he'd had a lovely visit with Nelson on Monday, staying for at least an hour and a half. Nelson told him about Darius' stitches - very good remembering from the previous day, this really is an improvement I think! Nelson also had a bit of a joke with James, realising that the number he'd written on his hand was actually the nursing home exit code! Don't worry, he hasn't escaped.

Yesterday Nelson was having an afternoon nap when I arrived. The usual brick-wall argument about going to the bathroom actually ended up in him willingly getting out of bed and off to the bathroom after I told him that the most dignified thing to do was to just deal with it all rather than fight about it... Progress!

His dinner arrived while I was there and I gave him a little test. I held up each piece of cutlery one by one and he was able to name each of them first time, and then his plate and mug as well. I am not sure how influenced this was by the fact that he was actually using them to eat his dinner at the time, but compared to the last time, this was amazing performance!


Today our plans changed but I didn't manage to get a message through to him. He remembered what I'd told him yesterday and had been waiting for me to arrive at the appointed time. So great that he remembered what I'd said yesterday!!

Before I left I set up my old door-stop computer loaded up with the visual brain hemisphere stimulation program for the staff to let Nelson sit watching it for 20 seconds 6 times a day... This is from the kinesiologist.

Pins and needles

My lovely friend Rebecca came to do some accupuncture on Nelson today which was so kind of her. He seemed quite fine about the needles going in and at one point I returned to the room to find a him a peacefully sleeping pincushion!

It will be interesting to see whether there are any marked changes in Nelson as a result of the treatments which Rebecca will continue to administer over the next few weeks.

In the meantime Darius enjoyed watching TV downstairs for a little while, demolishing a hot crossed bun very efficiently.