Fifth Day at Home

The sun came out yesterday and we took the opportunity to get outside and enjoy it. Between walking up and down the drive we sat in the rose garden and luxuriated in the warm sunshine listening to the birdsong all around.

At 3:30 Stephanie the nutritionist who works with most of Prof Hanna's patients, and her boyfriend Andy arrived having driven down from London. What a great couple. Andy drove around the area looking at homes for sale while Stephanie quietly and patiently sat with Richard and me, answering all our questions and asking Richard her own assessment questions. The outcome was a new eating regime which liberates us from the fast paced two hour feeding schedule. Instead, seeing that Richard is doing really well and eating most everything, we are back on a five small meals a day (plus puddings) plan, plus one of the scandishakes. Basically this is what we used to do anyway! Breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack/tea and then dinner. Both lunch and dinner can be followed by puddings 45 minutes later. Takes a huge amount of pressure off both me and Richard who was finding it hard to keep up. Little by little his meal portions will get bigger but really, he's doing amazingly well right now! We just had a roast Sunday lunch of chicken, potatoes, broccoli au gratin and carrots with a creamy mushroom gravy. Yum...

The ticklish cough plaguing Richard, Stephanie said was absolutely typical for this op and she immediately suggested drinking small sips of ice water.  Richard found instant relief from this simple advice. She wants us to flush out the feeding tube three times a day and in a few weeks, when everyone is satisfied with Richard's nutritional progress she will just gently pull it out. Any holes in the lower intestines close within seconds and the outer skin closes within a few hours. Sounds like science fiction but we believe her.

Mother Teresa was in again and changed the dressing on Richard's belly which is looking alot better. Having a look this morning there is hardly any sign of discharge so we wait for Theresa to return to change it tomorrow.

Unbeknown to me Richard called the out-of-hours doctor to come listen to his cough so mid-morning yesterday Dr. Young arrived (nice blond young lady doctor) listened, looked, probed and said all looked well and getting some simple cough linctus (syrup) would help. Done! Richard again, greatly relieved by a professionals advice.

Had a few lovely visitors yesterday and will have about ten today spread out over the afternoon. It been a good pace and feels very right.