A quick update before Christmas takes over every inch of our lives.
A bed became available at Stanmore at the beginning of November. José first returned to the Intensive Care Unit where the respiratory team could assess his lung capacity, the strength of his breathing muscles and any damage to his voice box. Although the two emergency ventilations undertaken at Woolwich hospital had been difficult they fortunately had only caused a sore throat and no lasting damage. The respiratory physios worked wonders with their shaking and tapping to get José's lungs clear within just a couple of days.
José is now off the ventilator most of the time but will continue to require support for a few hours each night. This will act like physio, making sure his lungs are fully expanded during the night.
José is still in Stanmore. He has access again to the Tilt Table (helps with circulation, bone density etc) and the FES bike (4.8 miles in 30 mins). The speech and language therapist is helping José to strengthen his swallow following a month of being nil by mouth. He's now able to eat soft pasta and jacket potatoes - the aim is to get him ready for Christmas dinner and all the trimmings.
New carers are being recruited to manage the slightly increased level of care that José will require. At the moment we don't know when this will all be in place, but by hook or by crook we will all spend Christmas day together as a family.
It's hard to believe that seven months has passed already, and that for most of that José has been in hospital. with luck we'll have him home soon and we'll be engaging with various community based specialist departments.
Thank you again for all your support, and especially to everyone who has donated to José's equipment fund or shared the JustGiving page over the last few weeks. I believe many more fundraising events are planned - watch this space.
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