14Nov07 - Advance Clinic 6 Day 3

Lucy was still fairly groggy this morning when she woke up. She now has a really nasty cough which made breakfast quite a challenge. Before her breakfast she had a whole bowl full of syringes containing various medicines to consume. She managed all of them without splattering me too much but the weetabix was a different matter. We are used to not getting fully dressed until after she has been fed so a little pebble dashing is no big deal. We were just pleased that she had eaten well, taken all her medicine and kept it down.

We decided to do the same as yesterday at the Scotson Advance Centre (www.advancecentre.org.uk) and only practice the new exercises on each other and let Lucy relax. We also made the decision to cancel the oxygen chamber for the rest of the week because Lucy is really not up to it. She has this wheezy cough and sore ears, so it is not worth the risk of making things worse. It is a shame she will miss it as she won't get another chance until February or later.

The therapy exercises seem to get increasingly complicated and this time we have four separate sets of exercises to learn. We will combine them and alternate between different combinations month by month until our next session. After three days we have been shown and practiced all four sets of exercises which mainly concentrate on strengthening the lungs and abdomen. The exercises involve applying and releasing gentle pressure with the fingers on various areas and positions on Lucy's torso and abdomen, front and back, to stimulate blood flow to the outer capillaries. In this way oxygen is carried to parts of Lucy's body that do not normally receive it hopefully stimulating increased activity. The next two days will be spent practicing and perfecting each exercises so that we can do them all at home without help. It is good that we have both been able to come this time as we should be able to help each other remember all the various permutations and finger positions.

Lucy remained unwell and sleepy most of today but did manage to eat OK which is a good sign. It will probably be another couple of days before she starts to recover fully so at the moment we are not too concerned but just need to keep an eye on her chest and make sure that the cough does not get any worse. We will probably not do the exercises on her for the rest of the week and start on her next week when she is back to normal.