How about dressing, how do you manage with that?
Everything but the bra. The bra takes me twenty-five minutes to, you know, get it clipped. And, you know, you can get quite frustrated with it but, you know, but…
You've learnt the best way to do it?
[Laughs] Aye put it on back to front and clip it at the front but still it's taking some length of time but, it's quite frustrating but it's just part of life isn't it. I've tried other types, you know, that can pull over your head and that but I don't like them. So, I'm definitely not wearing a vest because I'm too young [Laughs]. That's, that's the thing, I feel, was the hardest thing of all. Not being able to, to fix because you do it in seconds normally but I mean it's taking us twenty-five minutes.
And how about outing the clothes on? Do you put it on the…?
You've got to put it on the bad arm first, get it all up to the elbow and then pull up the rest of the material on. At the start I found it quite hard but now, as I've said the occupational therapist was really good. Patience, patience of a saint [laughs]. Showed me how to do it.
How about when you were first in the hospital? Did they maybe initially you couldn't do things, but how did you get back to doing things, what was important in helping you do that?
As I say the occu..., the thing that helped me most as I say was the occupational therapist that came round. Nice girl, she'd come and she'd sit and talk to you and say: “Well, you know, you want to do this yourself don't you?” and I'd be like “Yeah I want to do it myself,” and she would say: “Well I'll show you a way.” And if she showed you one way and it didn't work she'd show you another way. Really, really good.
Did you feel a bit like just giving up and letting other people do it?
Sometimes you do feel like that, you know but you can't afford to do that. |
