The family get-together

Hi all,

Yesterday, being Saturday the 8th August, Dad had nearly all of his side of the family to come and visit. Uncle Jeff and Aunty Chris flew over from China, Blake from Perth, Daniel from Melbourne and Lori and the kids from Sydney. Lozen, Kate, Aunty Ros, Ray, Wendy and Cherie all drove up from the south also Dad's cousin Judith and Richard who live in Brissy, the rest came down from Toowoomba.

It was wonderful to see the family that we don't get to see all that often! As you can imagine everyone has lots to catch up on so we were a bit of a rowdy bunch and stuck to the balcony all day. Someone asked me during the day if there was some sort of party going on, I replied "No, thats just what its like when my family are together!".

Dad is making astounding progress, reaching a couple of milestones in the last few days. The occupational therapist made him an adapted pen and spoon that straps to his hands. He signed his name on a form and today fed himself some peach halves from a bowl. Dad has also learnt to hook the jug of water over his hand and lift it up to sip from the straw, so no longer requires someone to help him have a drink of water.

Mum and Erin went back to Toowoomba this afternoon to go to the Friends of Bryan dinner. I decided to stay here and keep Dad company.

Dave and Morgan Wagner came to visit Dad today, along with Mark, Sue and Kate Fitz. Tim, the IT guy from the USQ, went out of his way to bring Dad a laptop from the uni with some specialised voice activated programs. He spent hours searching for all the equipment and setting it all up and then he drove down from Toowoomba this afternoon for a special delivery. Thank you to Michael Flannery and associates for approving all this for Dad, it is very much appreciated. Dad says he thinks they might expect him back at work a little sooner than first thought, which he tells me he would be only to happy to do, given all the positive comments and best wishes from the university staff.

Another extremely exicting occurance has been happening throughout today as well. Dad's legs have been spasming! It has happened about 3 times today and I as I have been typing here tonight, again his knee rose up and back down. Apparently spasms are a good thing, so I hope that they become more frequent. I will do some of my own research and keep you all informed on my findings.

Dad and I went to the dining hall for dinner this afternoon (I wouldn't call it night because dinner is served at Granny hour - 5pm). Its a bit of a laugh for me when I'm giving Dad his mouthfull of food because I find myself opening my mouth and swallowing at the same time as he does. You try scraping food up on your fork, getting it all nicely positioned, raising it up off the plate and not opening your mouth but giving it to someone else.

Dad's voice is still not improving much, he is getting it checked out tomorrow. They will put a camera down his nose and have a look all around his throat and voice box to try and find the cause of his "Darren Lockyer-like" voice. Will let you know how that goes.

Just tucked Dad into bed and will read him a bedtime story before I leave.

Until next time...

Love Bec, Bryan and the family
xoxo