Wednesday 1st October 2014

Bit of a break between updates but that can only be a good thing. Message from Sue earlier today: Yesterday was a big day with Gerard’s ‘Team’ visiting for a meeting. There are about 10 of them who filled each other and us in on Gerard’s progress. Steven Hill (the head honcho) is really pleased with Gerard’s progress. His operation has healed well and they will xray it in about 3 more weeks to check out how the plates are looking internally. They are impressed with how quickly he has mastered controlling his vocal cords and he is now able to have the cuff down on the tracheostomy anytime he wants for as long as he wants. He is up for a shower each morning and is in the wheelchair for a few hours a day. OT is organising some voice and eye activated software so he will be able to use the computer (and eventually turn lights/TV on and off). Their goal is to organise his routines over the next 4-6 weeks and get him ready to move to rehab. Today Gerard will get to eat for the first time - however it will be full of Barium so that they can xray him to see where the food ends up. The swallow is apparently quite difficult with the tracheostomy so he won’t be sitting down to a roast or meat pie (his traditional lunch on grand final day) for quite a while, but at least they are starting the process. It may not sound like much, but each of these are apparently huge hurdles given the nature of his injuries. Gerard is in great spirits. Even the ‘shrink’ (Gerard’s word!) was pleased with how he is setting himself small daily goals and keeping his focus on the positives. For us, we are in awe of how far he has progressed in only 5 weeks (feels like 5 years!) and we enjoy each of our visits and chats. Apart from that not much other news. We are in the ‘holding pattern’ as Gerard calls it which will have little wins along the way. Today at 3.40pm Gerard aced his food test this morning and is now on a full diet. He had steak, gravy, mashed potato, carrots, Brussel sprouts, soup, bread, peaches with custard & cherry ripe for lunch.