Elizabeth had to, once again, get to grips with control over her bladder. This time it was by herself. One day on BIU she was having to spend ages on the bed pan. The curtains were drawn. Quietly she waited. Then Charlotte her speech and Language therapist put her head round the curtain and asked if they could do a session. After fifteen minutes, she left. All that time Liz had been on the bed pan.
One day after some patient waiting, Liz gave up. We came back into the room to be with her. I had a large parcel from Auntie Mary in America to open. Inside were 'T' Shirts for all of us with 'Team Elizabeth' on them. We laughed with delight, ...and Elizabeth was able to pee. Shame bed pan was not there this time.
Elizabeth remembered all the strange sounds from Sheffield NCC. When she was able to speak she gave us a noise sample from the ward, including her neighbour's loving husband B calling out to his wife, and singing songs. "M, can you hear me M. It's B here by love."
On the 31st of October, J, one of the nurses on BIU who shared Elizabeth desire for fun, took a hospital sheet and cut eye holes in it. She put it over Elizabeth and they set off at break neck speed around the hospital with Elizabeth going "Boo", in a gentle, 'cork popping' voice. C, Liz's Speech Therapist, said Boo was a good sound to make. Very therapeutic.
When Elizabeth moved from Intensive care to BIU we discovered one thing was left behind. In Sheffield Liz had been given her diary, which staff, visitor and family had filled in every day. One on had told us that there is a protocol that comes with the diary. As the record contains 'traumatic events', it is classed as a medical record, and can only be given to a patient after counselling has also been offered. We understood this, it sounded like a caring and protective approach. However I think for the staff , this was unknown territory. We were their first family to use a diary (being from Sheffield). When Margaret and I went to Intensive care, we waited 30 minutes, then we were ushered into 'the bereavement room'. This room is nicely decorated in complete contrast to the normal waiting room. I wondered if we were to be told that the diary had died. But no. I thin the ward sister was concerned that we would be upset that we could not have the dairy. Once the rationale was explained we understood immediately and there was no problem. We all breathed a big sign of relief.
When Elizabeth started to breath independently from the ventilator, she was able to have a cap fitted over the traccy valve. A big sneeze could send this cap flying across the room. Elizabeth was also able to start to discover what was left of her voice. Up to this point we were using a letter chart to spell out words and converse. Elizabeth said something that was clearly very important, but we could not just get it. After a number of frustrating attempts, we reverted to the letter chart. The word was "wahoo".
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