As you will have already picked up, Louise has been an extremely independent person for her 57 years. Taking this fact into consideration you would agree any obstacles to her continued independence and capability would come as a major shock.

This is the story of what has been going on with my wife, Louise, over almost the last three months. Some of this is in Diary Format. Names have been changed in most cases, but it is all true as to what happened to her and to me in this time. 

May 3rd. Louise was finishing off in the bathroom and as she reached around, with her right arm...it happened! Louise had problems we had to get her off to hospital.

Even though Louise is now in a wheelchair most of the time she is still very dependent on both of her arms. Seeing she hurt herself she was unable to transfer from the chair to bed or to the car, or in the bathroom.During the initial period prior to her admission to hospital, we had assistance from our neighbour, from carers, and even paramedics, one day. Louise's Mother and I helped her, another day too.

After only a very short time, the carers ceased assisting her, due to concern with lifting Louise. Dear old Louise is dead weight and cannot assist anyone helping to lift her...they ceased coming.

May 6th I rang our GP and asked him what he thought the solution was...he said to get her to the hospital... 
We were a bit hurt initially, at the suggestion but anyway we called the Ambulance and two wonderful paramedics came. They assessed her and agreed with the Doc's suggestion to take her to Hospital. We got out the back of the Ambulance and they found Louise was too heavy to lift on their own so they called 2 more paramedics who helped them get her into the Ambulance.

It was a hard decision but believe me, a good one. The paramedics were lovely (all four of them, considering their backs) to get her from her power chair here at home, onto the stretcher for the ambulance. One of the guys had to track me down later in the cafe at the hospital, where I was having lunch. Seems they left their bag here at our place and needed to get the house keys...trusting soul me, willingly gave them up, huh...so he came back to get their bag.  Later I found him down in the Emergency area at the hospital and was able to get our keys back.  The discussion went as follows:

Me: "Well, did you guys find our buried treasure while you were there?"(At our house.)

Paramedic:"Oh yeah!  We invited some friends over to help clean out all the goodies!"

Later, on return home, everything was, of course, just as I had left it that morning, minus the paramedic's bag.

Nepean Hospital has been wonderful.
Fortunately, Louise had a direct contact number right from the start, in the "Short Stay" area and later at the other wards in which she was placed.
 I had my very first night alone in 30 years, here in our home last night. It was strange, I tell you.

May 7th: Louise is settled in Nepean Hospital tonight. Doctor Gabriella is terrific. A Geriatrician has also seen my sweetheart. One thing one needs to remember is while a Geriatrician normally only works with over 65  - Louise's Cerebral Palsy makes her much older considering all the aspects of her problem. It was such a relief to now have her being cared for professionally. She hoped to see a Social Worker and an Occupational Therapist to see what could be done for her, here at home. We were thinking at this time and it did happen later, as you will see, we ended up with a Lifting Device supplied in our home for the occasions Louise needs to be lifted to save everyone's arms, backs, shoulders and all that.

On this day also, Louise got visits from our pastor and his wife as well as her folks and me of course. We had accepted it was a good idea she ended up at Nepean Hospital. The dramas could have continued a lot longer, had we not made the decision for her to be admitted there.

Off to bed all alone again for Night number 2. 

8th May: She moved to a Geriatric Ward this arvo, after the sojourn in Short Stay area off Emergency since Saturday just gone.
9th May: It was surprising how quickly they were making plans for Louise...only to find much later these plans were not possible. She had been getting a lot of great help in Nepean Hospital. They were trying to get her on her feet again with a walker or “Pat Slide,” a smooth surface board that under normal circumstances would allow easy transfer of the patient from one place to another- say bed to stretcher or wheelchair to a lowered bed and so on.  but that did not work out. Louise’s locking right knee precluded this possibility.

Many have suggested various options for Louise. Such as surgery or physiotherapy. Some claimed that surgery was the best way to go. Guess what we all forgot including me? Fortunately, Dr. Josh at Rehab had his finger on the obvious direction. What was that you ask? The Orthopaedic had also been pushing surgery. BUT ONE BIG THING WE ALL FORGOT IS: Louise has Cerebral Palsy and is very dependent on her arms...BECAUSE HER LEGS DON'T WORK!

9th May: The word came to me as I got into bed last night as to what the physio said about Louise. Seems she sprained her (now...corrected!!)right Rotator Cuff the physio said yesterday. Seeing she needs both arms for transferring from wheelchair to bed or whatever it is a real loss. All the prayers were appreciated. Later on, she ended up in Hospital a lot longer than first thought.

Mum-in-law brought 2 Chicken Satay meals to the hospital for me, on this day. So for the next few days, I was clucking like an old chook!

May 10th: Another small load of washing went out, in the freezing cold.

I want to thank Wanda Gosper, from church, and Louise's Mum for assistance with meals for me... Nary a day goes by I don't have some delicious fare to keep me away from the takeaway food places, mostly anyway. I knew I should have had a go at cooking something for myself, but I just got so tired after each day at the hospital and trying to keep up with the washing (thankfully with some help from Louise's Mum too)...never mind all the clothes waiting to be put away, sigh! 

May 12th: I got up very early that morning,  to get the bins out hehe...seeing I forgot to do it the night before!

We met the Occupational Therapist that morning. Hopefully, she would get a hoist (Lifting Device mentiolned earlier) sorted at Home for Louise. We are expecting a small version of those big lifts they use in hospitals, for here at home. Between the Physio's, Rheumatologists, OT’s and the Social worker, we were hoping things would be sorted to the most comfortable and suitable set up for Louise. As long as they realized her limitations and didn't push her too hard. Some physio’s in the past have been the kind that always thought they could "fix" Louise but that was not so. The current practice we have dealt with for years have been wonderful, just helping her to keep going with support for her back and so on with appropriate treatment.

May 13th: We were seen by the Rehab lady yesterday. I thought she was a bit abrupt but Louise did not mind her...foreign lady a bit hard to follow with my hearing problems. There was a bit of a waiting list for Rehab so they planned to start the rehab in the current ward soon, prior to moving her. The Rehab lady said it was good that Louise had a plan for us to get a converted vehicle to allow her power wheelchair in behind the steering wheel and that Louise WILL be able to do that eventually and not to give up on that idea! Yay! 
As I was preparing this for my friends to read, later, we were offered financing of the Special Vehicle from someone at our church. What a blessing!

NOTE: This ended up not happening due to a LOT of problems. So as I come back to this none of us drives anymore.

12th May  There was still some rehab to go. I decided to re-do the parking arrangement again. It was a long way to walk down to the Multi-Level parking station, where the office was for doing this task. I could not believe the number of times I needed to update the weekly parking and the hospital’s Shuttle Bus was not working...meaning a long walk to and from the parking station.  I had previously got all tied up with the "official" way of renewing, which was a lot more confusing. 

This involved filling out a form to prove I was visiting an Inpatient regularly. Then having to go to the Enquiry Counter at the Main Entrance to get it validated, then off to the Cashier to pay for the week’s parking ticket. Finally down to the Multi-Level car park office to get the weekly pass.

I was so pleased when the manager of the parking facilities said I could just go down there each week with my Pension Card and my License and get another week’s parking at the reduced rate. The only difference to that was every six weeks I was required to fill out the necessary Form to sign and prove that I was qualified for the discounted parking, being a relative of an Inpatient of the hospital.

May 13th: Louise had no internet at the hospital of course, YET. The move to Rehab Ward couldn't come soon enough. When I left, on the planned moving day, she was still in the old ward, even when I rang on arriving home. As it transpired, she moved at around 5:30 pm, I am glad I did not stick around as it would have been too dark for me to drive home. I have a problem with night-driving due to the headlights of oncoming vehicles in my eyes. I recently learned my sister, 10 years my senior, also has exactly the same problem.