Other breaks

A bit of a shock came in the last couple of days.  The back specialist came to see Anthea and alerted her to some additional fractures in her back.  These are in the lumber region. The existence of this other injury had not been clearly understood till now.  As a result, they will extend the “jacket” that she wears . We await further information on this.

Please pray for Anthea as she comes to terms with this additional news. Your prayers for her and the whole family are still very important.

The process continues for Anthea to eat more solid food and less food via the tube.

The family were able to celebrate Nick’s birthday on Tuesday and it’s been good for everyone to be together over the last couple of days.

 

Further progress

Thank God for answered prayer.  Yesterday was a better day all round.  Anthea was visited by the hand surgeon who is taking her down to his specialist hand rehabilitation area today to take a look at her hand and to begin specialist hand physio.  Yesterday she was out of bed twice for over an hour.  Anthea was in better spirits yesterday as well, but prayer for her emotional rehabiltation is important.

They have started to wean her away from the feeding tube and yesterday she had some yoghurt and mashed potato (delicious!).  As soon as she readjusts to having solid food she will be able to have the food line removed.

Mike went to the Fracture Clinic at Wycombe Hospital and was told that the X Ray of his broken shoulder was excellent and that it was healing well.  He has some exercises to do and has been told to go back for an appointment in a month’s time.

The family are all well and coping amazingly well.  Although they have not as yet had a meeting with the spinal team which they are still hoping for in the next couple of days, suddenly there has been more talk of her being transferred to a Bristol hospital in the near future.  Watch this space…

 

Hope for progress

Not much to report from over the weekend as you might expect.  Everyone is hoping for some news over the next couple of days, however.

The hand team should be visiting Anthea today to check progress on Friday’s operation which we hope will be the last on her hand.  Hand physio should also begin soon.

The speech therapist should also be coming today to reassess her ability to swallow.  The family are also trying to fix up an appointment with the spinal team over the next couple of days to find out what sort of plan there is for Anthea’s recovery.  They’ve been understandably reticent up till now but the family hopes they might get a better idea now.

Mike is fine.  His shoulder blade appears to be healing very well – without any physio, feels there is total movement which obviously makes life that bit easier.  He is going to the fracture clinic today in High Wycombe so he’s expectant that the medical opinion will be positive too.

 

Final hand work?

Anthea went into theatre for what we hope is the last time to have some work done on her left hand.  They did some more skin grafts and have closed the wound.  Please pray that the grafts will take and this will be the last surgery they have to do.  She’s, not surprisingly, in some pain as a result of this.

Lella is now back up from Brighton for a few days.   The family still have no idea on the timeframe for recovery, how long Anthea will be at the John Radcliffe etc but the patience of Anthea and her family has been outstanding.

 

Various developments

Anthea has had a couple of good nights since Monday’s operation.  The hand surgeon came to see her yesterday.  He said he was pleased with the surgery when they removed the tip of her middle finger.  She will probably go back into theatre on Friday and Saturday for more cleaning.

The speech therapist also spent some time with Anthea and assessed her ability to swallow.  She can do this, but because they do not currently want to raise her above 60 degrees, the feeding tube will remain in for the time being (she might choke otherwise).

Anthea has spent some time out of bed, in her chair, and the physio will continue to move her on with movement and walking etc.

The family are doing well. Charis came up for the evening last night and will be back next week as it will be half-term.  They continue to feel well-supported and thankful for the developments, messages of support and prayers.

 

Some news

Getting clear news from the hospital has not been straightforward the last 24 hours. It seems that Anthea’s surgery on her hand went fine.  They had to remove the tip of her middle finger on her left hand, but that was what they planned following the surgeon’s examination a few days ago.  Further surgery might still be required.

Signs of progress keep coming. Apparently, they had Anthea standing up and with the assistance of a physio, she took some small steps.

Alexa has returned to be with the family which has been a blessing to Mike, Nick, NAomi and her family.  More concrete news will come when we hear it…

 

Surgery today

Anthea will be going into theatre at lunchtime today for further surgery on her left hand.  They will do another skin graft and probably remove the tip of one of her fingers (see Saturday’s post).  Anthea has been really brave about this.  Please pray for her and that the surgery will go well.

 

Quiet Night

Not too much to report this morning.  The hospital reported that Anthea had a reasonable night and the family are leaving for the hospital to be there in time for the start of visiting at am.  After  a slow start yesterday and then her daily physio session, Anthea was in good spirits when the family left yesterday evening.

Today, Charis returns to Bristol and back to her teaching job tomorrow.  Lella returned to Brighton last night.

Mike and the family would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your concern and interest. Mike sends this message to you all.  “Your prayers have really made a difference.  Even through the dark hours immediately after the accident, when it was not clear whether Anthea would survive, we felt the strength of being upheld by the prayers of many people.  Your messages and your encouragement have been unbelievable and we cannot begin to thank you all for your incredible support.  THANK YOU!  Please continue to keep us in your prayers”

This blog has been visited almost 35,000 times since it was first posted.  The family have received over 1,000 cards and seperate E Mails.  Though not all this support has come from Christians, which in itself is moving, the vast majority has, proving St Paul’s teaching that when one part of the body hurts the rest of the body feels it.  All of this is indeed ‘love of another kind.’

 

Changing Scene

It transpires that yesterday’s posting wasn’t quite the full story.  When we got to the hospital at about 11am we discovered that Anthea had, had an awful night and was quite distressed.  This was partly because she couldn’t work the alarm to call the nurse and partly because she was experiencing quite a lot of pain. We were able to get her some pain relief and she sat out of bed for a short time. 

During the afternoon she perked up significantly and was a lot better when we left her last night.  Unfortunately the speech and language therapist was unavailable to assess the quality of Anthea’s swallow which means that she will continue to have to be fed by a tube until early next week.

The hand surgeon came to see her and looked at her badly damaged hand.  On Monday she will return to theatre to have another skin graft and very likely have to have a small portion of one of her other fingers removed.  Anthea received this news with great courage, but please pray about this in particular. The family are well and tonight Lella will return to college in Brighton.  They are re-adjusting to the fact that having made huge progress in a week, they are now back to slow progress and the reality that Anthea’s recovery is likely to be good, but painstakingly slow.  Please pray for patience for all the family but especially for Anthea. 

 

Better Sleep

Anthea continues to make progress with sleeping.  The hospital reported that she had slept better and that each night her sleeping pattern continues to improve.  She apparently had a bit of pain at some point during the night, but was given something for it which seemed to do the trick.  Please pray for continued improvement.

The family are all OK and starting to face up to having to think about getting back to some kind of normality.  Their employers/college tutors have been fantastic, but no-one wants to abuse their kindness.  Please also pray for them as getting back to normality will be something of an emotional challenge given the events of the past twelve days.

Mike is in good shape and will stay in Wycombe at Naomi’s for the forseeable future.  He is immensely grateful for the support of his staff team and all his colleagues during his absence.