Milton Family Website

 

Regular updates on John's status

 

Late in March John had an accident at their property in Milton on the South Coast. We're not exactly sure what happened but Rosie found him unable to move and unable to speak, slumped over the front of his tractor. He is now in the Spinal Unit at North Shore Public Hospital.

TUESDAY 24 MARCH: John was transferred from Milton to the Royal North Shore Hospital Spinal Unit early this morning via helicopter. Rosie drove arrived by car just a few minutes after John arrived after the chopper stopped in Wollongong to refuel and replace the windscreen. John will get a real kick out of that when he is better! He has a gash on his face so we think he must have fallen and hit his head on his tractor, snapping his neck back and injuring the spinal cord. At Milton hospital they suspected he'd broken his back but scans in Sydney revealed no break. Instead they found degeneration of the spine in that area and damage to the spinal cord. Michael, Penni, Matilda and Rowdy drove to Milton early to look after the house and the dogs.

WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH: John had an operation today to repair some of the bones surrounding the injury to relieve pressure on the spinal cord. The operation went as well as could be expected and he is back in ICU. Because of the injury he can't breathe on his own so has a tube down his throat. He has minimal sensation in his limbs and, probably the most difficult for John, can't talk! Both Rosie and Michael are now in Sydney. John must be terrified!

THURSDAY 26 MARCH: The prognosis isn't great. Medical staff say he has a 50/50 chance of regaining mobility and even that will require extensive rehabilitation. It is frustrating for John and his family not to be able to communicate. He is expected to remain in ICU for a few more weeks.

FRIDAY 27 MARCH: Rosie is supplementing John's physio sessions and believes there is a little more strength in his right leg. John has sensation in his arms to the elbow and can move his upper arm, particularly on the right side. Michael returned to Milton this afternoon.

SATURDAY 28 MARCH: The breathing tube is expected to come out this afternoon which is wonderful progress for John who, as you know, could talk underwater! Still no improvement in his mobility but it's early days yet and we are still hopeful that John's pig-headedness will work in his favour!

SUNDAY 29 MARCH: John got the breathing tube out today and is very happy to be able to talk. It was very frustrating for him to have to try and communicate with winks and nods. There is still similar sensations and movement but some of the movements seem to be getting stronger. He has sensation through both arms to the hands but only movement to the elbow. He can move his legs a couple of centimetres and his toes on one side. It is early days yet and anything can still happen from here. He is likely to move from ICU this week to the spinal ward where his recovery will intensify. He is likely to be there for some time before moving to a specialist spinal rehab facility in Sydney.

MONDAY 30 MARCH: John is still talking non stop today. He is being very realistic and still in a positive frame of mind. The toughest times are yet to come, over the next few months. Rosie is living in the hospital at the moment. She will have to work on setting something up more permanently over the coming weeks. We are not expecting a lot of news on a daily basis. The improvements are expected to come gradually over the coming months so day to day it is hard to measure.

THURSDAY 2 APRIL: John has been moved to the ward. He is on ward 7D, Room 15. Visitors are welcome between 11am and 9pm. Rosie will spend some time at home in Milton from Saturday to Wednesday and asks that, if you would like to visit John, please do so while she is away. It's not that she doesn't want to see you - she really wants John to have as much company as possible. Just give her a call on 0409 592002 or 4454 3793 from Saturday evening to sort out a time for your visit so John doesn't end up with all his visitors on one day.

Penni and Angus have basically relocated to Milton while Michael and Matilda will spend much of their time in Canberra. When Michael is away for speaking engagements or to be in Sydney with his mum and dad, he will probably drop Matilda off in Milton. Jennie is in the US with her husband Steve but regularly on the phone getting updates.

While Rosie is happy to chat on the phone, I thought it would be a good idea to set up this little website so everyone has access to regular updates on John's condition and progress.

Email addresses you may want are rosiem45@optusnet.com.au (Rosie), milto@optusnet.com.au (Michael), onemoremountain@optusnet.com.au (Penni). If you would like to visit John, it's best to call Rosie first on 0409 592002 and leave a message as she may not be able to answer the phone in the hospital. She will get back to you.
Thank you on behalf of the whole Milton family for your messages of support and love. Penni Milton.

Message from John on Thursday at 8.00 pm.
Hi - this is Milto back from the dead. Needless to say last week was the worst week of my life. We were looking forward to being away the weekend of 28/29th April when Rosie and I were to attend cousin Trudes son Andrew and Brenda's wedding staying to have breakfast with them on Sunday morning at the hotel. Rosie and I had just bought a swimspa which had already arrived in Nowra ahead of time and I was madly digging holes with the tractor for the spa and the drainage hoping to get it installed before the forecast rain and the weekend away. Apart from the fact that I was a bit tired and more stupid than normal, I swear I hadn't had a drink for at least two weeks. I went out to my ute to retrieve some mail and other items that I had picked up at the shop that afternoon. It was pitch black dark and I should have picked up a torch at the door and I blundered out to the carport in front of my shed. I wasn't smart enough to get a torch and paid a massive price for my stupidity. I remember walking around my ute in the absolute pitch dark forgetting that I had parked the tractor next to it. I tripped on the bucket of the tractor and fell badly over the top of the bucket and landed in the middle of the hydraulics and took my full weight on the edge of the bucket gashing my head in the process. I remained conscious during the whole event and knew I was in trouble when I felt the massive tingling through my body and could not move to get into a better position. I knew Rosie had thought I had gone to bed and I could not get a sound out of my mouth to call her. I could also feel my breathing become harder and harder as the paralysis started to affect my breathing. With a last desperate effort I whistled the dog three times. According to Rosie, all three dogs ran out the back door and would not come back inside the house. I still remember seeing Rosie and the torch coming through the blackness and her giving the directions to the local ambulance. Time was critical at this stage and our address is not on the local maps so she had to talk them in from the bottom of the hill. The ambos were fantastic and they got me lined up on a board, plugged into oxygen and administered painkillers. After deciding not to land the helicopter because of the slope of our land, The ambulance took half an hour to travel the 7.5 kms to the Milton hospital. There, they put a tube down my throat to stabilise my breathing under anaesthetic and thats the last thing I remember until waking up in ICU at Royal North Shore Hospital.

From Rosie: After this they transported John down to the local helipad for transportation to RNS. I dashed home, let the dogs out of their sleeping crates (in case it took Michael and Penni longer to travel down from Canberra), threw some clothes, computer, ipod etc. into my car and took off for Sydney. When I arrived I could not understand why they had not already done scans and assessment. It turns out the helicopter had to refuel at Albion Park Rail on the way to Sydney and had broken their windscreen on landing. They had to wait for a replacement and only arrived in Sydney 10 mins before I did. John was out to it all this time. We went through Emergency and then ICU where John stayed for 9 days.

Monday morning 6th April, 2009: It's like times like this that you realise how many great friends you have. Thank you all for your emails and phone calls and offers of help. At this stage, John is on Ward 7D - the Spinal Unit at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Please do not phone him until we get him set up properly - at this stage a nurse has to take a hands-free phone in and hold it for him while he speaks. We are hoping to get something else set up soon. A computer man is coming to the hospital on Wednesday and we will set up a 'voice recognition' programme that we hope he will be able to operate. He will be able to get onto the internet and receive and send emails. We are unsure if Skype will be available. The hospital credit union has sponsored internet access to Ward 7D for three years and we are so grateful for this as it allows us to keep in touch.

John's mental state is to be expected with such a traumatic experience. He is determined that this is a challenge he is up to and determined to work as hard as possible to gain as much movement as he can working with the Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists. He is not sleeping very well as night and this is causing him grief and tiredness during the day. They have now fitted him with one of the hospital electric wheelchairs and I am hoping that over the next few days they can work out a way for him to drive it. This would mean that he could move around the ward, down to the waiting room where there is a television and he can talk to some of the other boys on the ward. After this he will be able to go down in the lifts and maybe outside later in the week. We are all trying very hard to keep his spirits up and create positive thoughts.

I have come home to Milton for a few days to sort out things as I ran out of the house two weeks ago at 2am in the morning - collect some clothes etc. I am back to Sydney by Wednesday. Let's hope this will be an improving week.

Rosie

Thursday 9th April, 2009
Repatriation seems to be progressing at a slow but thorough rate. I am extremely grateful to family, friends and staff for the help and dedication I so desperately need at this time of my life. Please take the chance whenever to bring me up to date with your life, grandchildren, golf handicaps, retirement etc. You have no idea how boring it can be in a place like this and that anything that can take your mind off and away from my current situation is gratefully welcome.
From Rosie:
Arrived back in Sydney early Wednesday morning. John has had to have two units of blood as he had blood in his urine - antibiotics and the extra blood have done the job now and it all seems to be clear. He is still not sleeping well and so is very tired during the day however he did 30 mins of leg cycling yesterday. This is a machine which is like a bike, it takes your legs and works them. You don't actually have to push but you can push if you are able. I think John pushed on his own for 5 mins and the machine worked for 25 mins. The right leg was pushing at 80% but the left leg was only 20%. You get all sorts of stats from the machine - time, %'s, strength etc. We also had an appointment with the computer OT. I couldn't send out emails from the internet access at 7D but found out when I came back that they had put in a new password on Monday while I was away - so we sorted that one out. Also got Skype working so this morning I put in a call to Jennie who is in Montana, USA so she could talk to her father, check on his progress and tell him she loves him. I think that worked out well for both of them. It is hard being so far away when a loved one is sick. So today when he gets up into the wheelchair he is going to have another driving lesson and as a reward, I am trying to get permission to take him downstairs for a cappuchino. Michael and Matilda are coming to visit tomorrow and John would rather they didn't bring Matilda into such a germ laden place so if I can chair him outside, Matilda can show John how she rides her two wheeler bike (no pedals she just uses her legs to push but she needs to have the right balance). John has had a few visitors and thanks to Pierre who has bought chocolates, relaxation tapes and plenty of enthusiastic encouragement (and who knows the spinal unit as he was in here for 10 days previously), also our good friend Peter - teller of many jokes, computer wizz and general memory jogger. A number of other friends have also visited during the last few days. Also my mother who keeps him up to date with share information. Will update again soon. Thanks again to everyone. Rosie

Easter Monday
I have just been away from John for two days judging at the Royal easter show - flyball racing. I also raced my Border Collie, Pac who had a great competition. After returning to the hospital, John had a good nights sleep last night and is much more alert this morning. The movements of his hand are improving and his legs are gaining some strength. He is quite definite that he will eventually get a lot better - maybe not regain everything but go a good deal further than he is at this time. He is currently in the shower and will get into an electric wheel chair for a while - we will maybe go down to the cafe downstairs. I skyped Jennie this morning and they had a good conversation - she is in Montana still skiing, making stickers and taking photographs. She said the ski season finishes tomorrow but there is lots of snow and more expected so they will be walking up and skiing down. Michael and Penni and the two grandchildren are still at Milton minding our house and dogs. It is so fantastic to have the help of family when you are in this situation. So many other friends have offered accommodation in sydney and whatever help we may need, we will be eternally grateful. At this time there is not much anyone can do except visit if possible and certainly John would love to hear about what you are doing and maybe some photos. Our friend, David, rang from Kabul yesterday to wish him well and John is looking forward to hearing from him and being able to speak with him. The doctors have mainly been away over Easter but will be back tomorrow and we will maybe learn more.

From John:
Its Milto once again back from the dead. Anybody who knows our family histories of both my grandfather and greatgrandfathers history of dying on the toilet was almost re-enacted about half an hour ago. I went in to have a shower and go to the toilet - luckily Rosie was here - and she noticed that my normal conversational tone was dropping off, more importantly my bloodpressure was dropping. All I could do was remember her telling me to keep breathing. She rang the nurses button urgently and they ran around, got oxygen on, got him onto the blood pressure machine, got him off the commode chair and into bed, tipped the bed head down and his sense of humour returned with the blood pressure. It can only make you think that in spite of how good the care and expertise is, hospitals can be dangerous places. So much for drama. I just want to thank everybody for their concern and best wishes for me and my family.

Tuesday 14th April, 2009
Well today has been a better day on the whole. John got up this morning and spent about 2 hours in the chair before bowing to pain and discomfort. He will be doing another sleep study tonight to check on the sleep apneoa. He saw the Spinal Unit doctor this afternoon who is very pleased at the improvements in his movement and feels that he should get some more as we go along. The OT has given him some exercises for his hands. He has to try squeezing a soft rubber ball, also take pegs off a frame and roll playdough out into a snake. He will have to work at all these exercises before he will be able to do them but that is the whole idea. He has also been fitted with a wide elastic strap which goes around his stomach - this apparently helps with the blood pressure ups and downs. Worked this morning while he was in the chair. Had some visitors today, Peter and Di, and Peter and Frankie - all with lots of news, jokes and general frivolities.

From Rosie: Saturday 18th April
The last few days have brought some good and bad news. The two bad items are that he definitely has sleep apnea which a lot of the spinal patients have as the muscles around the lungs are not working properly and the second is that he has contracted VRE which one of the patients in ICU had. This basically means that you will have to wear a gown and gloves when you visit John - and wash hands before and after visiting. VRE is resistant to most antibiotics but is really only a problem to very sick people with very low immune systems. The good news about the sleep apnea is that John is now using a Cpap machine at night and is sleeping much better than previously. With some good sleep behind him, he is much more able to cope with doing physio and getting up for longer in the chair. He is also having driving lessons learning how to get in and out of lifts and up and down gutters. I have come back to Milton to mow the grass, tidy up, check the bills, get some more clothing for both John and I, open the mail etc. etc. I will also take the chance to take the dogs for an outing to the dog club and give them a good run.
Johns mobility is slowly improving. He is able to put his right thumb and index finger together and pick up fabric. He can also use the index finger for working on using the TV remote. He right leg is able to move quite well - he can lift the leg up and move all his toes quite well. The left arm and leg are much weaker. So lots of work to be done.
Rosie

Monday 20th April
From Rosie:
I am back at the hospital after two days off at home. It took me four hours to drive back to Sydney with all the southcoast weekend traffic all returning to Sydney. John was quite good yesterday when I arrived but had had another blood pressure scare. We are going to sit him up for half an hour before getting him up to make the transition from lying in bed to getting up in the shower, not so traumatic for his blood pressure. This morning, Barbara the OT and myself and John (in the electric chair), went outside the hospital to the St. Leonards Forum and train station. More advanced lessons on driving the wheelchair out in public including up and down gutters, going down hills and angled footpaths, watching the terrain, and manouvring in tight places. We had coffee but John was exhausted and we had to return where he slept for quite a while recovering from his trip. More blood tests for the VRE and xrays for the neck also today. Thanks to everyone for their emails - there are too many to reply personally but we are so grateful for your thoughts and wishes and offers of help. Thanks also to those friends who visited while I was in Milton to keep John sane. His other big achievement today was to hold the electric toothbrush I bought back for him and sort of clean his teeth. His right hand is certainly getting stronger.
Rosie

Wednesday 22nd April, 2009
Hi everybody. It is now a month since I woke up in hospital and although I am very impatient with my progress at the moment I guess I have come a long way. This time a month ago I could only breathe with a machine down in my lungs, I was being fed through a tube and could only communicate one blink yes, two blinks no. Since those dark days in ICU I have progressed to the spinal unit which I am convinced is the best place for anyone in my condition to be. Over the last week I have learned to scratch my nose on my own, feed myself with a special spoon, do 10 mins on the physios pedalling machine, do 10 mins on the arm machine among other things. It is important to get by 'why me' if only I could turn the clock back etc. etc. We all tend to take the good things that happen to us and curse our luck for the bad things. I have had a chance to look back over my life to realise that I have been extremely lucky meeting Rosie, having a family, running a business etc. etc. I also have been very fortunate with the people I have met along the way a lot of whom have popped back into my life with communication in some way when I have badly needed them. My family have been great, friends as far back as my school days, Tony, my apprenticeship Chris and Zabo, my lifelong friend Peter and Di from the spacetracking days, friends and acquaintences I had during my 27 years in the ski industry. People like Bruce, Pierre, Sheila, Larry, have all been in or contacted me to wish me well. Plus my old friend Norm who gave me my first earthmoving job in 1982 when the ski industry wasn't good enough to support me and the family. I am humbled bearing in mind that in the past I may not have been the most kind and considerate fellow that I could have been. The last month has forced me to learn new skills, if something itches and you can't scratch it, put your mind somewhere else where it is not a concern. As an Australian I am extremely proud of our healthcare system and what it has provided me with over the last month. I have also changed my mind about multi-culturalism based on the contact I have had with different people from every part of the world who have come to this country and have made a real contribution in their caring and professionalism working tirelessly in a place like this doing all sorts of jobs someone from the outside could never dream of. Once again thanks for your support.
Best regards. Milto.

Thursday 23rd April
I have had two really good days at physio - on the leg machine and on the arm machine. Also went on the tilt table today and did knee bends while almost upright (tied on with straps). Had wrist weights on but could not raise my arms with them yet. I am starting to feel that maybe with lots and lots of work that I will regain some of my movements back. I can move my arms, legs, hands and feet but there is not much strength there. However my prize today was a cappuchino that I managed to drink myself - a bit shaky but successful. I am also having a bet with my 6-month old grandson, Angus Rowdy as to who will sit up by themself first. Penni is thinking that it will be under two weeks for Rowdy so I have to work hard to try and beat him. Then we will look at the same competition for walking - I am hoping I will have at least 5 months to work on this. We are working on the speech recognition programme for my computer but looks like we will have to upgrade to a new computer. Mine is now 5 years old and not quite up to it.
There is also a new photo on the gallery sent to us by our old friends Tony and Anita. There should be a prize for anyone knowing the name of the boat and/or what it was!!!
John Milto

Sunday 26th April, 2009
Milto and the character building experience - I am not kidding, what an amazing journey I am having in this life. If I think back 10 years ago when I was living in our big house at Raby Bay on the canal with our varely used tennis court and 25m pool, Porsche and Landcruiser in the garage, 46ft ketch at the bottom of the garden, a very expensive indulgent lifestyle, large group of social friends which I no longer am in touch with with the exception of Bill and Lois and their family. At this time of my life I was suffering depression and it was not uncommon to wake up in the morning and wonder why the hell I should get out of bed.
Now I wake up in bed and life really is full of problem solving. Although my body can't move much at the moment my mind is seldom still as I plan and look forward to, the small events of the day. To anybody reading this that I have given offense to in the past because of my bad attitude, it is my hope that I will emerge from this experience sometime in the next 6 months, not necessarily physically complete, but a better person. Enough of all that. Life goes on day to day and I cannot imagine being able to get through this without my darling wife Rosie of 43 years who slaves tirelessly 12 hours a day to cater for my every whim not only as a wife, best friend but also as a handmaiden. I was very pleased at yesterday, Anzac day, Rosies mother and sister took her out of this place for a couple of hours for a slapup lunch, family and female companionship which she was so badly in need of. This left me with about 2 hours on my own in the chair with the hospital and surrounds at my disposal. I am the proud possessor of at least 100 audiobooks most of which have gummed up. If anybody has any tricks for releasing the tapes and stopping them sticking please let me know. Yesterday I took Wilbur Smith downstairs into the garden in the sun and finally got through the whole book to my satisfaction. Rosie came back from lunch, I had a cappuchino in the cafe which is my big reward when things go well. We then did something that I never would have done if I hadn't been in this situation. We had a great afternoon exploring the hospital grounds and found an old 100 yr old cemetery, very much overgrown will old uneven brick paths. Its great to think what life and Sydney would have been like at the turn of the century. Certainly I wouldn't have survived with medical science the way it was then. After having a full and rewarding day I came back to the ward and with the help of a talking book was able to sleep through the night without pai8nkillers or a sleeping pill but with the help of my c-pap machine.
VRE has thrown me into the company of two young guys and their families. Unfortunately one of the guys who had a bike accident into a bus, came down with MRSA (Golden Staph). I am raising this for anybody who is planning to visit me who may be in poor health or have a low immune system or open wounds. It may not be wise to enter the room which has an infection protocol of gowns and gloves etc. The alternative is to meet with me in the lounge at the end of the ward or downstairs where we can have coffee in the cafe or sit outside in the sun. Look forward to hearing from you - send me an email. Best regards,
Milto

Wednesday 29th April. 2009
Milto the human guinea pig and labrat. Two days ago I volunteered to give my body to science and be part of a physio study on people in my condition. Although nobody has used the word quadraplegic I guess I fall into that category (they prefer to use the term incomplete) As far as I can tell the extent of my disability is ok down to my neck, limited movement of arms and legs especially on the left side, limited feeling over a large part of my body and no control over bladder and bowels. My source of hope is that the spinal area which is C5/C6 which had a preexisting condition and I may have broken along the dotted line, may improve as the bruising and swelling goes down. The rest is up to me. The philosophy is that with physio and occupational therapy, I can develop the areas of deficit to a limited extent. Everybody's injuries is different and nobody can predict where I will be in 3 months, 6 months, a year or 5 years. However I see my recovery as coming in four stages. The first stages were the dark 10 days in intensive care whichdon't even warrant talking about. Life certainly improved when I hit the spinal unit and was able to settle into a routine of waking up after a good nights sleep at about 7. that first hour I spend planning my day, watching the today show and doing my own exercises using and testing all the parts of my body that have some movement. 8 o'clock usually brings breakfast and my darling Rosie one of the best parts of the day. I am now able tofeed myself to a limited extent provided somebody empties the packet of cornflakes, pulls the top of the orange juice and cuts up the omelette. I cant believe that it then takes two and a half hours to go to the toilet, have a shower, get dressed and get into the wheelchair in time to get to physio at 11. I won't go into all the details but this process takes the help of four people lifting me in and out of bed in a sling, dressing and shaving. I can clean my own teeth. By the end of this I am usually exhausted with a low blood pressure and I welcome any break between that and physio which is the most strenuous part of the day. My legs are still my best hope. Physio has a cycle which I have built my pedalling time to half an hour. I usually close my eyes, grit my teeth and imagine I am riding my bike around Lake Burley Griffin. According to the machine I have ridden between 4-5 km over than half hour. Not so flash are my arms where I go on the arm cranks and can onlysqueeze 6 mind of effort at level 5 with a couple of rests on the way. With the help of a machine I have stood up on two occasions but have been beaten by dizziness however I intend to keep pushing with this exercise and I am sure my performance will improve as my general health gets better. Getting back to my role as a labrat, the study involves me setting goals over the next three months, year and 5 years, testing the strengths and weakness of my incomplete body and the one I found most disturbing was touching me all over first with a cotton wool ball and then a safety pin blunt end and sharp. I was concerned at my lack of performance in the feeling department even when she used the sharp end of the safety pin. I hope things will improve in time. The idea of the study was to form a baseline which would be circulated so that other physios and aspiring physios can predict my improvement over a 5 year period. Thanks for the support of family and friends I have been able to get my head around the whole situation and once again I would like to express my appreciation. Probably today or tomorrow my new cutting edge computer will be arriving. It will take a while to get set up but then I will be able to bombard you with emails, surf the net and watch DVD's, listen to music and make telephone calls. Best regards
Milto
After reading this blog I have realised that I didn't finish the four stages of my recovery. First was intensive care, second is the spinal unit which I look like being in for 2-3 months - during this time I hope my general health will improve and I will keep hitting the physio as hard as I can, Third is royal Rehab Hospital, Moorong unit which I believe I will be up to a much more intensive physio programme which will take the good functions of my body and maximise them and also work on bringing up the weaker points like the left side of my body. At this stage there will be some definite plans made on my being rehabilitated to going home. My situation will be assessed, recommendations will be made - our house, cars, etc. will be modified to suit my situation. It is my aim to be selfsufficient in the house so that Rosie can have freedom and be able to live the life she deserves. This process should take about 6 months however I have been told that my recovery process could well continue over the next 2-5 years. It is my intention to make the most of every opportunity given to me. Milto

Friday 8th May, 2009
In the last week, we have had some wonderful advances with movement. John is able to use a manual wheelchair for part of the day now and the electric for the rest of the day. He is able to wheel around on flat surfaces but the arms are not strong enough to be able to turn tightly and to move on areas that are not flat. He is able to transfer (move from the chair onto a physio bed or another chair while he is in the gym) and has the help of a couple of people just to make sure he doesn't tip forwards. I believe they are going to try him moving from bed to chair next week. He has been working on the strength of his legs doing 30 mins in the pedal machine. He is now able to stand from a sitting position with help and today he did about 15 steps in a walker with some help. The legs are reasonably strong standing but walking is much harder and this will take some time. We are encouraged that the physios believe that he will walk again - maybe with some kind of help and wheelchair as a backup.
This is a great advance and has given John a lot of mental encouragement. He is also able to mostly feed himself. Shaving is a bit more difficult as he is not able to push hard enough as yet. Still a long way to go but having improvements each day gives you hope to keep trying as hard as you can.
John now has his new computer and we have set up an email address for him:
miltoj@optusnet.com.au so if you have some time please email him about what you are doing with your lives, photos and anything else of interest. His computer is state of the art. A HP with touchscreen 22 - great screen, able to receive television reception and get any of the free-to-air channels, just loading Itunes, Skype and Dragon which is a speech recognition programme. Dragon will take some time to get used to but with the touchscreen and speech recognition John should just about be able to do anything. He also has an áir'mouse which will work when just being held. I have definitely been out-computered.
From John:
As Rosie has mentioned we have had one hell of a week most of it positive. After a month in the spinal unit I am getting into the routine - can't say its all fun - but I tend to be able to put my mind somewhere else. Last Thursday 1st May, Rosie went back to Milton for a well-earned rest, compete with the dogs, see the grandchildren, mow the lawn etc. Although she was away for four days it was a memorable time for me purely because of the visitors I had. Even before my accident I used to enjoy hanging out in coffee lounges - in this place I am making a pig of myself with three very acceptable ones to choose from. Peter and Di visit every couple of days and are very generous with their time and the little practical things they bring. I don't know where I would be without them. It was great to get a visit from my cousin Trude on Friday and from her kids, Brenda and Andrew on Monday. In the absence of my brother and sister who live in Adelaide and are a long way away, family support from Trude and Geoff, Rosemary's mum and sister, my kids - has been wonderful. On Saturday everything came together when I had a visit from Barry and Jennifer - old sailing friends of 30 years, Paul and Adrienne who I have known for a long time through the Disabled Skiers Assoc. and my son Michael. They all arrived at about the same time and we had a great afternoon hanging out in the coffee lounge downstairs. The manual wheelchair is certainly the harder option however its great for the morale - in the electric wheelchair I feel like a quad. The manual wheelchair makes me feel like a sporting wheelie. It is also great compulsory exercise which is forcing me to develop my arms and grip which are very weak. If you don't use it you lose it. Rosie has covered most of the other stuff however if I can keep this level of improvement going I should be back home and in my tractor well before Christmas. In closing it is my intention to turn into a computer nerd a skill that is long overdue. Be prepared to be bombarded with emails in another couple of weeks. In return if you have any funny stories, jokes, etc. I could sure use them. Had a great visit from Peter last night - Club captain of the Morgan club. I have had to put my beloved Morgan into mothballs for the moment until such time as I know if I can drive it again. Peter and the Club have been very supportive and I am very grateful to them

Wednesday 13th May, 2009
The ups and downs of a week in the spinal unit. Last Friday was a memorable day. I went to physio is my manual wheel chair, did half an hour at level 6 on the pedalling machine. All my own power. This was made more memorable by the fact that for the first time without conscious effort both legs shared the load 50/50. I then did a transfer to a bench from the wheelchair and with a little assistance stood up with the walking frame and managed 19 small steps before falling in a heap. After this mighty effort I needed to reward myself with a cappuchino and a lazy afternoon. Unfortunately the next day I couldn't wake up and I couldn't get out of bed. I thought I had just overdone it the day beforebut apparently I picked up a urinary infection which sent all the doctors off pumping me full of wonderdrugs. I didn't wake until 3 that afternoon when Peter and Di called in to see me and say goodbye before leaving for the west coast of Canada to Alaska and back by boat. They will be away 5 weeks and I will miss them greatly. Sunday I decided it was time to kick butt, got into my manual chair and spent two and a half hours with rests doing laps of the 11th and 12th floor. Once again the bug caught up with me or I overdid it for I have been a sick little puppy ever since. My darling Rosie returned on Tuesday and I am slowly getting my strength back but having to limit my physio and exercise, spending more time on the computer which I find mentally tiring than any of my physical pursuits. We meet with the computer guru this afternoon who will give me lessons on how to use the speech recognition programme. Lunch has just arrived. Don't feel much like it which isn''t like the old Milto.
Best regards - Milto

Wednesday 20th May, 2009
Sorry everyone. It's been a week since our last update. Its been very up and down. I went back to Milton on Saturday morning last weekend to pick up Pac and Toshi and then drove to Canberra to race flyball with Pac and do some judging on the Sunday. I stayed with Michael and Penni and grandchildren on Saturday night after having helped to set up the rings in the afternoon. Pac raced fast and reliably as usual and I left Canberra at about 5 pm to drive back to Milton, stay there Sunday night and leave next morning to return to Sydney. Last Friday John stayed in bed all day as he was unwell and he slept all day. He was a little better on Saturday and much better on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. However today he is back in bed unwell again - none of the tests have shown up anything unusual to make him feel so sleepy (he cannot wake up for long enough to answer the doctors questions). However they are still looking for reasons for this. He will have a CT scan of his stomach tomorrow and also a neck x-ray which will be the last check before okaying his neckbrace to come off permanently. He will be really happy about that - 8 weeks with it on is enough. Over the last week he has learnt to 'transfer' and he has finally done away with the dreaded sling and hydraulic hoist. Apart from the indignity of this system, being able to transfer means he is not waiting for his turn. He is also managing to lose some weight which will help him with transferring and with taking steps. Old friends from Adelaide, Tony and Neet called in on Tuesday to see him. Tony has known John since he was 12 years old. They spent some hours reminiscing and catching up on where old friends were now. His computer skills are slowly improving although we have a major problem with it. Ever since we took delivery a few weeks ago, it is crashing a number of times every day - different programmes, different times etc. The log just says the name of the programme and also 40 hits for 'windows'. As an operator only I have tried all sorts of things, changing settings on Task Manager, relooking at all the settings, checking out the forums on the internet etc. etc. So if any of you computer geniuses have any ideas about 'mini crash dumps'or çrash dumps'etc. please think about some way of fixing it.
Otherwise life goes on in the hospital - every day merges into the next. I have been told that John is 8th in line to go to Ryde but I don't think his health is good enough as yet.
Rosie

Sunday 31st May, 2009
Well after losing the last few blogs because Johns computer had crashed, we now have a solution. I had been working on the crashing problem since we unpacked it and I had checked blog sites, HP sites you name it and nobody had any ideas that worked. It had crashed 87 times in 3 weeks with the BSOD during different programmes, different times and I was getting very frustrated with it. So last Thursday after it crashing while I was burning recovery discs and then crashing during reformat recovery, I rang my friend Alex from Harvey Norman who organised for me to get the computer replaced with a brand new one. Thursday afternoon I worked on setting up emails and internet, Skype, Itunes and putting lots of photos on the new machine. No crashing – I was ecstatic.
John has had a couple of interesting weeks learning to do all sorts of things. His transferring is going really well –he does not need a board now to slide on. He has transferred from bed to commode, bed to electric wheelchair, bed to manual chair, from chair to chair and during this coming week he is going to try from chair to car. If he can do this it will allow us to go out ourselves driving around and get us out of the hospital at any time. We have been out this week to Chatswood shopping centre travelling in a maxi taxi in the electric wheelchair. He is using the manual chair around the hospital but finds not having a headrest a bit uncomfortable all day so generally changes to the electric one during the afternoon. The manual chair is good for using his arm muscles. He is eating himself, shaving, cleaning teeth, putting on his headphones, pressing the buttons on his ipod touch, using his finger to touch the screen on his computer and using the remote buttons, rolling in bed, pushing himself up the bed, and manipulating and conjoling the staff to get his own way. He had a lesson on pulling his trackpants on and the OT asked him to pull his knees up in the bed, and bend down to his feet and grab the waistband and pull upwards. John and I both burst out laughing telling the OT that he hadn’t been able to touch his feet for the last 5 years. So she looked into her bag of tricks and pulled out a pole with a grabber on the end and John is working on using this to put his pants on. He is also working his hands and fingers as these are the weakest limbs. He has playdough to rollout and press with his fingers, plastic bolts and nuts to put together, pegs to open and put onto a glass and doing stretching exercises with his fingers. He gets frustrated doing some of these things as he realises how far he has to go. The physios have him doing sit/stands now. With some help he gets from lying position to a sitting position, and then with help he heaves himself into a standing position. When he has his balance, he can stand on his own. Doing this exercise he is reteaching his muscle groups, and learning balance again – all of which he will need if he is to walk again.
I heard from Jennie and Steve during the week and she sent photos of them both kite-surfing taken with her Go-Pro camera, setup either on the kite itself or on her board. The pictures are amazing and they are both very happy although haven’t heard about the residence or travel documents from the USA government.
Michael, Penni, Matilda and Rowdy have returned to Canberra after minding the house and dogs for nearly 7 weeks for us. Michael has a busy month motivational speaking all around Australia and Penni has the two kids, house and garden, Michaels manager and a book all on the go.
I have been in Milton this weekend and have had a lovely time doing agility, flyball and throwing the Frisbee and ball for the dogs. It is great to be back with my beloved dogs and sleep in my own bed.
Thanks to everyone who has visited and sent emails. He loves to hear from his friends and it makes being in the hospital bearable. He is on a diet and has lost some weight but wants to get his weight right down to make it easier to learn to walk and move himself around. Lots of love to all
Rosie
PS the next blog will be written by John on his new computer (typed by Rosie)

Thursday 4th June, 2009
Well its not being typed by John as he is again unwell yesterday and today. The problem is they can't find any reason for these off-days (not feeling sick, all vitals are good but he is so tired he cant even talk). And he certainly misses out of physio and OT sessions which means he does not progress. However he has gotten up today and has gone around to do a very light workout. He hasn't managed to find enough energy to try transferring from chair to car yet but when he does we will go and get a 'Disabled Car Sticker' so we can go out anytime maybe to the beach, for meals, visiting and shopping. That will help his mental state as well.
The new computer is going well now - I have installed all the programmes he wants at the moment and he can receive emails from you. A number of people from the ward have moved on to Moorong, Royal rehab hospital and I think John is now about 5th or 6th on the list. We are not in a hurry to get there though, as we are doing as much as we can here and there is still a questionmark about his health. So life goes on here at the hospital. It is hard to plan anything in our future as we are still very unsure about how much John can use his legs and arms. We just have to be patient and wait. However we have dispensed with the van to take an electric wheelchair, the hydraulic hoist to lift him in and out of bed and the dreaded sling (so that is a saving of $80,000). As long as we can keep crossing items off the list, we are very happy. However it looks like we will have to add a hearing aid to the list as his hearing is a lot worse than before the accident. Headphones for the computer and TV will also have to be added. Anyway thanks to everyone and we'll blog again soon.
Regards, Rosie

Saturday 6th June, 2009
Milto the fatalist.
Out of 20 million Australians 341 wind up like me as a para or a quad in the spinal unit every year. 35% of those are due to motor accidents, 25% due to motorbike accidents, 15% are female, a reasonable percentage due to misadventure falling off ladders, diving into shallow water etc. some people have suffeered degeneration of their spine for medical reasons causing paralysis, less than 1% thats 1 in every 7 million are dumb enough to trip over something on the ground and damage themselves so badly. Too late to look back all I can do is look forward and make the most of what has been left to me. After 8 days of very good health, achieving very good things in physio which you have already heard about, I crashed last Monday just when Rosie came back from Milton leaving me bedbound and unable to get my head off the pillow. Although it took me longer to recover this time (3 days), the symptoms weren't quite as bad and on one day I was able to get out of bed and do a minimum of physio and exercise to keep the blood flowing. Bounced back on Friday and was able to show Rosie all of the amazing feats that I had accomplished the week before when she was away. We celebrated today by using our taxpayer paid cab vouchers to go to Chatswood, eat something other than hospital food, poke around the shops and get as much time outside in the fresh air and winter sun as we could pack into 4 hours. Things are really relative. Just the feeling of the sun on my back, the company of my wife and a gelato in my mouth as I watched the crowds out for the day like us in Chatswood, was almost indescribable after two and a half months in a hospital ward. We were both struck by the lack of white faces in Chatswood, everybody seemed to some sort of Asian persuasion but I was also struck by how well dressed and presented and behaved the crowds were. I am certainly at an advantage in a power wheelchair - everybody gets out of your road and a lot of people are openly friendly and courteous. My big problem at the moment is my hearing cause I can see them smiling and their lips moving and don't know what they are saying. Needless to say I smile back, nod my head and thank them. Nothing than a badtempered quadraplegic. Unfortunately the OT is sick but early next week I hope to be rated to transfer into Rosies car which means the holiday begins and we will be able to arrange our day to knock over the OT and physio and spend the rest of the day playing tourist. If anybody is in Sydney and is good for breakfast or lunch, the Miltons could possibly be starters. Rosie is judging a dog comp at Castle Hill tomorrow so I intend to do laps around the top floor in the manual wheelchair, push some weights and concentrate on my standing up exercises. Monday is also a public holiday and we plan to go to a little restaurant down the road I have found and hang out over a pot of tea and a pile of toast and read the Sunday papers in their sungarden like other people do. In closing things are moving at Moorong which is the Royal Rehab facility which I will need to attend to get the absolute most out of the skills and muscles I have developed and also do a lot of thinking about rails in the house, ramps, etc. if necessary which I hope they are not. This is the last step of my rehabilitation prior to going home. Although I ache to get home and be with the dogs, I am in no huge hurry to go to Moorong until such times as my general health has moved up a couple of notches. Best regards.
Milto

Tuesday 15th June, 2009
Hi everyone this is Milto back on deck after being laid low by this bug that seems to strike regularly every 8 days over the last two months. The doctors don't have a clue what is causing it and all I know is that I get extremely weak and sleep continually. The good news is that it is decreasing in its length of time and severity. I can usually feel it coming the day before get clobbered on day 2 and spend day 3 getting back to normal. The other good indication that my health is improving is that I am no longer fainting or feeling faint every morning when I get out of bed and get on the commode to go to the toilet. Although these are small signs they are heading in the right direction. I do resent them interfering with my ability to do OT and physio especially physio. OT teaches you to handle your disabilities which I hope will in the main be temporary interludes in my life. Physio locates the weaknesses and builds them up with continual exercise which is the way of the future for me. I feel I have had a win this week for although I told everybody that I would walk out of this place or that the next time I see them I will be walking, I have felt for the last month that this may have been bravado and that I might have bitten off more than I could chew. Although I have been able to stand from a sitting position for the last two weeks which has meant I could transfer the next part of the exercise was to move my legs in the walking motion. To me this seemed impossible but I kept at it. The physios have now located the areas that are letting me down and prescribed certain exercises to build them up. This is still early days but there is a glimmer of hope. I can now walk between parallel bars holding the bars only loosely to catch me if I overbalance which is often. I am certainly not there yet but I am hoping for a vast improvement by the end of the month. If this happens I am going to reward myself with a weekend at home with Rosie and the dogs. Its almost three months and if things go according to plan I am halfway through my rehabilitation.
Milto and his brush with Islam. There are 25 patients in the spinal ward and as a consequence the ward is full. I come into daily contact with about half these people the others being too sick to get out of bed or show no interest in physio and the recovery process. One particular family I found very interesting was a very strict Muslim family to the extent that they nearly all wear the robes. All the men have beads in their pocket which they wave around during the course of their conversation. The mufti seems to visit about once a week and all the woman dress in traditional robes and most certainly love, honour and instantly obey. I noted that sometimes they would wait at least quarter an hour to go up in the lift so they wouldn't be stuck with anyone who was hostile or confrontational. I made it my habit to say gooday to them every time I passed them in the hall or rode in the lift. Last week they came and introduced themselves to me. I found them to be very nice people who like everybody else is very worried about their son in the spinal unit. They are from Beirut and have been in Australia for a long time. They told me they had been approached by Hezbollah who were happy to fly the whole family back to Lebanon if they would vote for them in the election that was held last week. The elder son went back to Beirut last year to visit family and was grabbed by the army at the airport to serve two years national service even though he had been born in Australia - they still felt they had a claim on him. It took him the best part of two weeks to get out of it and get back on a plane to Australia.
Thats it for the moment. All the best. Milto

Sunday 28th June, 2009
Hi everyone,
Sorry we haven't hit the blog for the last two weeks. The main reason I have been crook. Whereas my health was cycling three days bad, seven days good, about two weeks ago it took a dive so that I lost all stamina to the extent that my rehabilitation has not advanced and I have lost ground. This is more of a concern than you can believe and I and the doctors are doing everything to find the cause. I force myself to get up every day and do at least a minimum of OT and pysio but I am nowhere near the walking and advances I was so thrilled about a couple of weeks ago. Had some great visits. Pete and Di are back from a trip in USA and Canada, Noel and Jen who I hadn't seen for forty years since my spacetracking days came back into my life. We have been out for lunch a few times. However the effort of this usually puts me into bed by about 6 pm when I usually die until the next morning. On a more positive side, I have finally got my voice recognition programme going and I have started returning a lot of the emails that have been such support over the last two months. Please excuse the spelling and the grammar of the voice programme. Its great to be able to blame it on the computer. As I write this we are looking forward to a visit from Bruce and Judy who I shared a house with before I was married. They have come to Sydney to watch the French play the Wallabies and we are going out to breakfast at 9.30. It will be great to see them and catch up on old times. The only other factor in my life at the moment is that my move to Moorong rehab hospital is getting closer and closer. I must get my health up and firing before this happens so I can take full advantage of what it has to offer - swimming pool, exercise, driving classes etc. I am not looking forward to going home at this stage for it seems too far off and unatainable. However it will happen and at that time I hope to get the swimspa installed and swim my way back to health and fitness. Best regards,
Milto


Wednesday, 22 July
Tomorrow it will be four months since my accident. Life goes on at Royal North Shore, it is quite a few weeks since I have updated the blog I am very sorry that during that time have suffered the usual ups and downs good and poor health lack of and sometimes an excess of motivation. At the moment I'm just getting over a four-day bout of food poisoning not the greatest thing to have in hospital. I am now the senior man in the spinal unit having been here longer than anyone else, this puts me on the top of the list to go to Moorong rehabilitation centre, however my VRE status dictates that I have a single room, this is far better than sharing a room with three other guys and is worth waiting for however I expect to get to Moorong sometime in the next two weeks which will mark the final phase of my rehabilitation before I go home. I am not sure what the Internet connections are like at Moorong, so I may not have the Internet or Skype connections that I am enjoying here at Royal North Shore. I have enjoyed some lovely visits and e-mails over the last month thank you very much. You may notice that this is the first blog I have done on Dragon the voice recognition program. The walking has progressed but not as fast I had planned, the physios are happy with what I'm doing but I still cannot walk unaided without the bars or the walking frame, if I am not successful here I should be in Moorong for the last phase of my rehabilitation during that time they will turn the Wick up on the physio having three sessions a day. Please excuse any spelling or grammar I can blame it on the computer.
best regards
Milto.

Thursday 6th August, 2009

One small step for me, one giant step for mankind
After four months and in 11 days in hospital I have finally walked unaided. Something that I thought I would do, walk out of this hospital, is well within my grasp. I have spent at least two of the last four months regretting I had said that the feeling that the commitment was just bravado and not achievable. It would have to be the hardest thing I have ever tried and ranks with marryng Rosie, flying solo for the first time and matriculating after multiple tries. At my leaving certificate. The walk consisted of walking between parallel bars about 5 m long and then walking back without touching falling or grabbing. I did this about eight times making a total distance about 80 m, tomorrow I will do 100, next 120 m and so on. My walking has to still be supervised so my aim is walking unaided to the shower or toilet is still but only a week or two away. I will then have four months at Moorong rehab centre to perfect my technique. Please share my joy and satisfaction and once again thank you for your support. This is written with my voice recognition program please excuse any errors and grammar or spelling, great to blame it on the computer
Best regards.
Milto

13th August, 2009
On 10 August at 11 o'clock after almost 5 months in the Royal North Shore Hospital a much lighter wiser and humble Milto walked the 22 m down the hall of the casualty department unaided, into the fresh air and the rain to the waiting bus to transport me to Moorong. You better believe it was one hell of an experience enhanced by the presence of my darling wife Rosie and my lifelong friend Peter Wedd, who walk beside me and were ready to grab me if I fell, this was not necessary. Peter's wife Diane acted as camerawoman and backup chair pusher. Within my first month in Royal North Shore Hospital I spoke to the surgeon who did my operation and asked him given my age and the extent of my injury if I would walk again. Understandably he said that no but in the same breath told me that history was littered with medical opinion that have been proved wrong, thus opening the door just a chink. The only other person who said I would walk was a lovely young physio called Alex who later in my treatment said there was a chance. It was not that I was courageous I simply lived on hope, set achievable goals on a daily or weekly basis and kept going as my general health would allow. So much for patting myself on the back. The Bus Took Me to Moorong the rehabilitation centre. It was like going from the Hilton five star to backpackers hostel, the building is 130 years old and has been condemned which is why they stopped doing maintenance on it is a small narrow with fittings and architecture reminiscent of 1880. It has been a mental asylum, an infectious disease hospital and a Homestead over the last hundred and 30 years. A lot of the drawbacks have been compensated for by the homely feeling of a place and a high standard of the staff once again multicultural.
The address is 600 Victoria Road, Ryde. Unfortunately visiting hours are strict 12 till two and five till 10 on weekdays and 11 till 930 on weekends. This place is tough if I survive the next four months I'll probably jog out of here, I'll tell you more as the weeks go on. Hope this e-mail finds you all in good health.
Please excuse spelling and grammer errors, I am using a voice recognition program and can blame the computer.

Best Regards

Milto