Afternoon in on the ward

Jessye and Rosie arrived back at ICU with a present for Rosie from Macquarie Centre up the road. She's not allowed to wet her head for four weeks after surgery so the cow shower cap was very thoughtful, not to mention cute.



Rosie's CT looked great so she was allowed to come back to the ward after lunch. As far as mobility goes, she is doing well, able to stand without dizziness or headache and walk to the toilet and shower with assistance.The Physio assessed her and is happy for her to sit up in the chair and go to the barroom as long as two people, one on each side, are helping her just in case.

The mental confusion is quite different from last time and persisting longer which is challenging for Rosie who worries it might be permanent. She has trouble finding the right word for a thing sometimes, even numbers. When I showed her a card of the eight of spades, she couldn't remember what sound eight made but said "it's two of those", flashing four fingers. We'll see how things progress. When I was doing some simple arithmetic with her again at her request, she was thinking logically although she sometimes took a roundabout way to the answer. She mentioned her concerns to Michael this morning and he assured her they hadn't damaged her maths and after the credit card story, he said her memory's OK.

When we got back to her room, I helped Rosie shower in the chair, something she'd been longing to do all morning. Once she was clean and dressed and comfy in bed, one of our first activities was to finish the puzzle. I have a feeling a nurse or two may have been helping out while we were gone.



Rosie wants to be the person who put the last piece in. She thought she'd make sure by hiding one of the pieces under her blanket. Earlier when we counted the pieces there seemed to be one missing for the number of spaces we had left. Jessye said she'd make one if it never showed up. After Rosie put her last piece in and we admired the puzzle with just one hole, Sophie sprang forward with the piece she'd hidden ages ago, inciting outrage and hysteria. She was very pleased with her joke. I said it was Rosie's puzzle and she should put the last piece in. Rosie said she was now too emotionally stressed to put it in and I should do it.



We stated a game of up the river - Rosie seemed to be managing quite well despite her labeling issues because there was nothing she needed to identify out loud apart from her bid at the beginning. After a couple of rounds she said she needed a nap so Jessye and Sophie went back to the Travelodge and Rosie's been sleeping for a hour and a half. Headache hasn't been an issue since we came back to the ward but tends to come and go.