Bertiebassett Dec 20th

Oh Teri, I am so sorry Bert has taken a tumble, I hope you are not beating yourself up about that.  He is obviously a proud man and its got to be difficult for him to be relying on you.  I hope things get better.

Love & Strength

Debs xx

Thanks Debs, he hates relying on me for everything, but I think he has learned not to go downstairs first thing in the morning. Well I hope he has, he did get a fright and a huge bruise to go with it.

Teri x

You must feel exhausted Teri. Keith was like Bert very independant and found it hard to rely on me and he too had falls when he tried to do things by himself.

Lets hope Bert has learnt that he cannot at the moment do some things  but also the drugs play with the mind, Keith got very confused at times and I had to repeat things or remind him that something had already happened. I found this very frustrating as I'm sure he did because he used to apologise for asking things over and over again.

Look after yourself Teri.

Thinking of you .

Tarnie xx

Hi Teri,

Hope Teri hasn't hurt himself too much but even a little is enough. I hope you are getting enough help and are not exhausting yourself because you need your energy too. I

Bert sounds like a very proud man, just like my grandad, My grandad had a couple of nasty falls accompanied with giant bruises because his platelets were so low,  my nan after a great deal of persuasion agreed to let me bring Grandad's bed downstairs and we got him a wheelie comode to aid his walking from his bed to the chair, (if he was well enough) so he was also on one level and less likely to put himself at greater risk of injury if he was to fall, which he did, although we had to use a bowl of soapy water for hygeine and the comode.

Also Teri, my nan sometimes had appoinments and I was concerned about grandad falling while he was alone, so the mac nurse helped me and arranged a carer to come and sit with grandad so he was safe, that can also apply if you need to go and do the shopping etc, if you do have those concerns don't hesitate to ask the mac nurse.  I hope you don't think i am interfering it's just that I didn't know they did things like that until I expressed my concern one day and they sorted it straight away.  It takes a weight off your mind and if only for a short while you can concentrate on what you need to do.

Wish you all the best Teri,

Reneesha xx

Hi Reneesha. All advice appreciated I don't think you are interfering especially since you have so recently been through exactly the same thing. I suspect when the Physio comes they will give him a walking aid of some kind, he is ok when he has been up and about for a while but when he first wakes up he can't sit up let alone walk properly. He has bottles to use in the bedroom but won't. A commode is on it's way to us should arrive Tuesday along with other aids.

He spends most of his time upstairs now anyway as it is too much to go down all the time. Never thought about having a carer to sit with him as usually 1 of the kids will come round. As you well know he sleeps most of the time now his transfusion did not really help much with that although it has given him some colour in his cheeks.

Thanks again for your advice and I do appreciate all the comments from friends.

Love as always

Teri