Denise Recovering

Yesterday was six weeks since Denise's stroke.  It has been a whirlwind of almost daily hospital visits, finding new-for-her accommodation inspections (oh my giddy aunt, some were atrocious, some beyond our means, some just right, all with seemingly caring staff), trying to keep up with work.  Thank goodness for my fabulous sisters to share this process (ok, so we bicker, and annoy each other, mostly inadvertently), but we all have our mother's welfare at heart, and all are scared of the future for her.

Denise is having daily speech, physio and occupational therapies.  She is starting to speak, and although we know that her mind is sound, she is struggling to verbalize the words.  There is still no movement in her arm and leg, but she is able to stand with aid, allowing her to move from bed to wheelchair to therapy bed without being shoved and pushed.  We constantly remind her of her good progress but understandably she still gets frustrated at times.  I was told today by at least three staff that her doctor was astounded when she returned his "good morning" greeting, not having heard her speak at all!

She will move out of the Rehab Unit next Friday, and continue with the therapies at her new (and still unconfirmed) temporary home.

In this crisis I abandoned my Teacher Accreditation Course, will pick it up in 2016 when it is scheduled to be run again.  My fellow students have had mixed results with the final module, but we all have learned an amazing amount.  My sister-in-law has been with us for two weeks from Johannesburg, sorting out and getting ready to (maybe in Dec) move into a house in Noordhoek (25 mins away)

Virtually no new or old sewing done but I do go and visit my sewing room every couple of days, and reassure it that I'll be back!  The first evening I didn't visit my mum I laid out all my hexagon flowers on the lounge coffee table (watching tv catchup) and decided on a layout for the quilt.  I needed to have some handwork to keep me sane out of the house and didn't have anything else portable and suitable.  (Was cursing that I can't get my phone to sync photos to laptop, but went back to basics, and just copied the darn things!).....

A rough layout to get the values and colours in general position (these colours are close to actual):

 

And a blurry and oddly-coloured picture of the almost final layout (I had to shuffle a bunch when I was one short in a row!)

 And here is Gorgeous George fast asleep on a bed - never known a cat to sleep on her back quite like this one!