Early night for Rosie

I had just rung Jessye and Sophie to say that Rosie was awake and they could wander over to Macquarie Centre and bring back some easy dinner when Merlyne texted to say she was coming over with lamb cutlets later.

Michael popped in and asked what the news was. Rosie told him about her concerns with forgetting what things are called. He asked her to name some things he pointed to. She correctly identified his watch and glasses but came up with wrist when he wiggled his finger. He said saying something in close proximity was good. When he was indicating a button on his coat she said glasses again. He called that a scientific term I didn't quite catch and said she was doing just fine. He reassured her this was a temporary state and that she was doing very well.

We played cards but became more and more interested in Rosie's fascinating neurological wonderland. Jessye showed Rosie a plastic cup filled with pens and asked her what it was. Rosie said a pencil case (fair enough, it's a container for pens). Then Jessye took the pens out and asked her what it was. She said quite certainly, as though Jessye were a cretin for asking, "a pencil case". When Jessye said it was something we drink out of and demonstrated tipping the cup into her mouth, Rosie said "how can you drink out of it when it's got a zip?" She was looking at the open mouth of a cup and saw a zip because her brain had told her this was a pencil case. I went to meet Merlyne and when we got back, Jessye had persevered and Rosie was pleased with herself for learning that the thing was a cup!



Other interesting observations: Rosie can't read at the moment because she doesn't recognise all the letters or words, just a few of them. But she can write the whole alphabet in order. She recognised Fred (our dog), Harry Potter (fanatical fan), Wicked (saw it 5 times), Bum ( her nickname for Sophie). P for Peter and R for Rosie looked identical to her. Now that she knows it's temporary, she's fascinated by it all herself and wants to video her philosophy so that she can listen to it later when she's boring and normal like the rest of us. She has sophisticated thoughts about it all and has retained quite a bit of technical knowledge of various parts of the brain that she studied in psychology in 2011 which she refers to when she's theorising about what's happening to her currently. But the best bit is seeing the look of fun and excitement on her face when she's sitting there thinking up theories about it. This is a whole lot better than the despondency she felt about this being her lot in life.

There was one point tonight, though, when we were talking with Merlyne about this hopefully being the last operation, that both Rosie and I said we were not counting our chickens this time after the last experience. Rosie clearly feels the angiogram result next Monday is not a forgone conclusion and the thought of more surgery made her almost teary. I think I will work on expecting a positive result.

David popped in with chocolates after Merlyne had left, then we decided to have an early night tonight. Rosie wanted to have lots of sleep so Jessye and I took her to the toilet, got her comfy in bed, got the lazyboy ready for Jessye and then Sophie and I headed for Travelodge at about 9:30.

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.

Round 2, day 2

I talked my way into ICU early to accompany Rosie to CT at 7:45. She was upset at the thought of another cannula having to be put in for the dye because an overly zealous nurse had removed yesterday's one last night - yesterday's experience of three painful attempts before anaesthesia put her right off. However, the nice ICU doctor did a good job and it was pretty easy.







On our return, she ate cornflakes and 2 biscuits for breakfast. She requested the biscuits because she'd had one at 3am which was her first food for about 30 hours and thought it was the best thing she's ever eaten.

Then she felt well enough to open the box Peter sent which contained new games for us to explore, chocolates, books and jewellery from Grandma and Grandad in Christchurch and some mail for Rosie.





Rosie has been despondent about how long it's taking her memory to come back this time. She has trouble remembering what month, year and day it is and numbers in general. She forgot the number 1 when Miika and David came earlier and asked how many fingers were being held up. I thought it might help her brain remember what to do if we did some simple mental arithmetic, starting with 1+1 which she knew. I think it was good for her. She knew my birthday and that Sophie had the same one. Then I asked her what my credit card number is and she reeled off the whole thing with expiry date and 3-digit code on the back. We had a good laugh about that - she said it was more important than the other stuff. The fact she could remember it cheered her up no end.

She's having a sleep now. Headache has been much more under control this time and if the CT is OK I hope she'll be able to go back to the ward today.