Final Driving lesson

Thursday 13th November

Physio session with Viv involved more testing of my leg strength and range of motion.This is done on admission to the unit and prior to discharge. It's all improved which I knew already but still it was nice to have it documented. I then had another go at getting up from the floor again. With a lot more success.



Eventually I want to be ablee to do it with only using one crutch and no other support but at the moment my legs are too week to be able to balance down that low.

Client ed today was a quick one but still very eye opening. We looked at some slides of pressure sores. They are caused by sitting on one particular point of your body for long periods, the blood flow stops to the skin and it starts to die. Once the skin has started to die its very hard for it to heal. They start out as red spots on your body. I check my skin every morning and night for them and if I find one I try to keep pressure off it until it's turned back to normal colour. Some sores are that bad that so much of the tissue has died that you can put your whole hand inside the wound, going all the way into the bone. These require surgery to repair and lots of bed rest keeping pressure off the area.

After the horrible pictures I headed out to play with my car for a bit whilst I waited for my Driving lesson. About 20 minutes in to the lesson Gavin pulled up in the car and asked if I wanted to DRIVE to Hornsby and back. How could I say no. He had to drop off a box to a mechanic who dose car modifications for handicapped people and he had a cancellation(the next lesson) so I was off!!! It was a good few hours drive which has got me over the line for my licence. Now Gavin will write a letter to the RTA and I will then receive one then back saying that I can now get my full licence back. Hopefully it will come next week.

When I got back Rob, Alison and I headed to Macquarie to watch a movie and have a feed. All in all it was a very busy and productive day.

Stu