Frid 9th Septmeber

I cannot believe how quickly the last 6 months have gone by.  Lindsey continues to improve and is getting stronger and more confident all the time. She has come such a long way from when she left the hospital on the 6th April, then she was totally dependant on me for everything even down to calling me in the night to help her use the loo. She has no more hospital appointments to attend has been discharged by physiotherapy dept and also by the orthopaedic clinics.  The last 6 months have been quite trying and very frustrating at some points. As far as hospitals and Doctors go its been a real eye opener,we tend to see these people as gods and believe all that they tell us but at the end of the day they are only humans doing a job and yes they do make mistakes. Had Lindsey been checked for blood clots whilst on the MAU which she should have been as its hospital policy, we might have been spared the trauma of almost losing our daughter. There are a lot of brilliant people working in the hospital Dr Low for example who saved Lindseys life but there are also a lot of incompetent  numptys who really should think of a career change . The ankle continues to give Lindsey a degree of pain Bur Mr McDermott {Brilliant Doctor} says it may always be that was because it was such a bad break, It has been decided that Lins should stay on her Warfarin for the foreseeable future as they were not able to come up with the root cause of her blood clots ,the tablets have the side effect of making her tired but small price to pay for keeping her healthy.

Frid 1st July

Lins is continuing to make progress but it seems to have slowed down somewhat. She is now down to walking with one crutch, but tiredness continues to be an issue and she does not cover much distance, also her ankle continues to give her pain.  She has now been discharged by the physio who says it just a case of building up daily to improve on what she is already doing.  On Monday she is going to have an Echo cardiogram which is jsut routine 3 month follow up. The INR in her blood seems to be a bit eratic and she is having blood test every 5 days at the moment much to her disgust as they find it quite difficult to get her blood and often leave her with bruising.
What has happened to Lindsey has left her confused and a little bitter, she doesnt think its fair that everything happens to her and I have to agree with her its not fair, any of us would have gone through it for her if we could but thats not how life works is it. I think the whole experience has brought us closer as a family and made us appreciate each other a little bit more

Mon 6th Jun

Lindsey is continuing to improve daily she no longer uses her wheelchair in the house, it is used only for venturing out, this was replaced with a walking frame for a time but now she has progressed to crutches. The ankle is still giving Lins a bit of pain and she wears a small leg brace which gives her some extra support.Tiredness continues to be a problem and therefore she cannot walk very far before being worn out.
Lindsey misses her independence greatly and this sometimes leads to mood swings and tears, this is where having her big Sis around is a bonus shes always there with a hug and a smile and usually manages to bring her around.  When the weather allows we go out and about shopping lunching or picnics in the park,we have also been to visit the day center again and plan to visit the Alternatives shop soon too .

Sun May 15th

Lindsey is continuing to make slow but steady progress. The hospital appointments are getting less now as well. We are down to weekly blood tests which are still being done at home and weekly visits from the Physio which are also still at home for the time being. Last Thursday she went for a Ct head scan,we wont get the results of this until we have a follow up appointment with the consultant we will be advised of this by post. Lins can now walk 2 room lengths with the aid of the walking frame, this is really excellent it does however tire her out and she needs a lot of rest in between. When the Physio comes on Tues he is going to bring a smaller less cumbersome frame for her to try as he thinks she is ready now to move on. Another big breakthrough, She  has managed to sit on the sofa this is the first time she has sat on anything other than her wheelchair or bed since she came home, it was so lovely to see her relaxed and comfortable as she gets really stiff in the wheelchair after a while. Throughout it all Lindseys sense of humour has remained, she is very funny and we laugh a lot, there are some tears but mainly laughs.

Thurs 5th May

Has been quite a good week the weather has been brilliant so we have spent a lot of time outdoors. Since last week Lins had made good progress she has actually seen a physio at last,his name is Graham and he has now been to see her 3 times.  She is now able to get herself up without support from me and has managed to take 10 steps which is a major breakthrough.  Progress is slow and she still complains about being in a lot of pain but its improving.  She has also been discharged from the district nurse so another step in the right direction. Next week we have an app for a CCT scan this will rule out completely the notion that she had suffered from some form of epilepsy, Lins doesn't want to go but I see no harm in ruling something else out of the equation.

Thurs 28th Apr

Last Thursday Lins had an appointment at the Haematology clinic,we assumed this is where we would get some answers as to why Lins had the blood clots that made her collapse. Alas this was not the case , the Doctor seemed very nice, Dr McTeirnan but like the others before her she had only skimmed Lins notes and kept asking us loads of questions she even dared to suggest that the clot might have been caused by her broken ankle, which is just ludicrous as we were told in the intensive care dept after her scan that these clots had been in her system for quite some time, we relayed this info to the doc who was oblivious, oh right,that's something I will need to look into,might have been an idea to look into before we actually got there! She had no answers as to why she had the clots there was nothing obvious showed up in her blood tests its been decided that she stay on warfarin long term since they have no idea what caused the clots.Since Lins left the ITC theres has been no continuity of care seems to be that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing its been a long and frustrating experience for all of us. On Tuesday we were back at the orthopaedic clinic we didn't see a consultant this time as he was on holiday, we were seen by the Senior Physio, she asked how we had been getting on since she last seen us a fortnight ago, I explained that since they put on her weight bearing cast she had not seen any physio and had not been given any kind of walking aid and therefore she wasn't getting along terribly well. She seemed a little surprised by this but made no comment. She said it was now time to get the cast off for good and so we went along to have it off, afterwards the physio came back and asked Lins if she could try putting some weight on her ankle she was screaming with pain, the physio decided to get some more en  x rays done just to be sure ,she looked at the results and said that yes it was all fine and she needed to now start putting her weight on her foot it would be painful to start with but with time it would get better. Before we left they gave Lins a splint support for her ankle to make it feel a little better they also issued her with a walking frame, the instruction was to practice a little each day at home and see them again in a month,meantime she would contact the community physio team to visit Lins at home,We  have been here before so Im not holding my breath.

wed 20th Apr

We had a real lazy start to the day today no appointments no nurses due so we had a lie in. As predicted still have heard nothing from physio dept. Had a phone call from Heather so she and the kids came for lunch it was a beautiful sunny day again so we had lunch in the garden, and then the kids played and we just sat and enjoyed the sunshine . Today we didn't focus much on the crutches since Lins had a bit of a scare yesterday when she thought she was going to fall , tomorrow is another day so will try again .