Today in South Africa is Heritage day or better known as National Braai Day.  What made this day even greater was Tom’s FIRST OUTING!!!!! Myself, Gary and Nicky Futter bundled (and I mean bundled, as we are not as skilled as the Rehab Team) Tom into the front of a sedan car and travelled 9.8km to the Futter’s house for a braai.  I could just see Tom drinking in the scenery, watching the trees go by, the clouds, the blue sky, the people walking, the cars.  Matt and Hayley – the Futter’s kids were a great help, Matt desperate to give Tom his lunch and Hayley happy to fetch a beer (!!!!) from the fridge for him.  2 beers was his quota and they went down “singing hymns”.

Tom has come so far in the last few weeks.  He fills his day with gym sessions, mastering the demo electric wheelchair, meeting with various wheelchair salesmen, and desperately and patiently he endeavours to master “The Dragon”.  This is the voice recognition software, called Dragon Naturally Speaking, that has been loaded onto his laptop.  At the moment it enables him to switch between applications, write documents, send emails, type messages on skype and move the mouse around the screen.  It has some hitches as it gets use to his voice but this should come in time.  The application he is desperate to master is Excel.

His breathing continues to be good and his lungs have been clear for a while.  He’s eating well and has put on a few kgs but is still lighter than me!  He can now sit most of the day in the wheelchair with few blood pressure issues.  Every now and then someone will need to lift his legs to get the blood pumping again.  If we don’t catch it in time he goes grey and passes out.  But this has got less and less over time - ruthless encouragement from Mel and Michelle!  His bald head, shaved in appreciation of everyone who has walked for him around the world, is slowly sprouting hair.  Hooray!

It’ll be my last day with him tomorrow for a while as Rob, Tom’s Dad and Gretta his twin sister arrive for 2 weeks.  I will take the opportunity to stay at home with the girls, who took my departure so hard this time round, and get busy adapting the house and finding a carer.  My emotions still run amock and at the most inappropraite times, I find.  I’ve said it before, the reality hits me in the back of my head like a cricket bat and I literally have to shake it out, take some deep breaths and just let it be.  I keep seeing how Tom is dealing with this and its humbling.  At lunch today Nicky said something very thought provoking and had I heard it 21 weeks ago I probably would have found it hard to do.  Make a Gratitude List of 25 things and then each day add 5 more things to that list.  One of those things on my list today was…  ”I am grateful to scratch that itch”.  

Another was “I am grateful for this day with my husband”.