Foot signals…

For the last few days since her stroke, Joan has seemed to be in a deep, deep, and very uneasy sleep. Her expression blank, eyes closed with the odd involuntary movement of hands and feet or a twitch and a thunderous snore. She’s must be there somewhere, but I think we had decided she wasn’t. The incident with Joan and the woman in the motorised mobility carriage and the subsequent stroke have made us even more pessimistic than usual.

But then this afternoon she seemed to be trying to open her eyes. We couldn’t be sure, but then her lips moved as if she were trying to speak. She didn’t say anything but a sound came out which was more than a breath and not the snore that we’ve so quickly become so used to. It wasn’t much but it gave me an idea; one I’ve used with people undergoing a hypnotherapy session with me who I’ve put in trance.

Sometimes I ask people to lift a finger or had in response to a suggestion. They always do so I asked Joan to lift her foot if she could hear me and she did. It was a jerky spasm of a lift, but it really happened. We tried quite a few times over the next couple of hours and, although it wasn’t a hundred percent, ninety percent of the time her foot lifted.

She’s in their somewhere, stuck in some sort of trance brought on by the stroke, but she isn’t gone completely. She can hear what we say I think and she’s able to respond. Maybe this is the start of getting her back. Well, I’m hoping so despite her driving me mad when she is here.