The last 24 hours have been all about water – a bathroom mod, hydro and plenty of tears.

As our neighbours will know (sorry guys, I promise it was a once off), we now have a disabled access bathroom for Mike to use on weekend leave. A massive thankyou to Stu Rose and Danny Cohen for their marathon effort on Wednesday night to convert a pokey laundry / bathroom area in to a fantastic open space with an interim but big safe shower area and new shower head and rail. The guys worked 7 hours straight (after their normal work day) and did an amazing job….. although I am a bit worried about Stu – he is a plumber and he arrived with all the right equipment and cleaned up after himself! Thankyou so much guys – this was an absolutely amazing transformation and I know that Mike’s shower this Sunday morning will be the sweetest yet! Stu also organised for an electrician to come out and install an big IXL-tastic light to keep the non-insulated laundry nice and warm. So thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

Then yesterday afternoon Mike hit the hydro pool. I think it was quite bittersweet. The last time he was in the pool prior to yesterday he swam 6kms before work. He looked great in the water - got a lot more range from those poor, poor shoulders and just seemed to relax right in to the water. In the end he was in for nearly an hour and his back and shoulders seemed to love every second of it. His legs spasmed from the second that they got in but hopefully they will learn to relax a bit more in the water and he can start the timetrial for the “scull the length of the pool” that he has in mind. I think they just wanted to kick but couldn’t get the message right.
A massive thanks to Mel and Alice who managed to still run the session even though they are staff down due to sickness.

Bruce and Les are about to do a bit of a furniture de-clutter to make more space in the house for Mike to move around so that he doesn’t feel that it is quite so small when he is home this weekend. The bed and hoist have arrived (thanks heaps Erin and Teresa for organising this), we have a temporary bathroom and I am hoping to get some door wedges today – so home to the blue house for the weekend. Here’s hoping Mike can be up before mid-day on Saturday to get to Ash’s first fairy ballet lesson!

And don’t drop in at Talbot on the weekend — all going well today – we won’t be there from early Saturday to late Sunday! Thanks to nurse Ashley for the advanced education that he slotted in this week so that I can safely turn Mike and watch for pressure areas and for the care plan he has provided; to Teresa for the hoist training so I can get him up and back to bed; and also a huge thankyou to Di at Care For You for organising a carer for this Sunday morning at 7am so Mike can get up and in to the day.

Hoping for a more positive day today – after all – it is fun-day Friday. Oh, and not sure if I should jinx the swans for tonight or not?? What the hell – go the swannies! Let’s hope we can stay a bit late tonight with Mike to watch it.