In which city are you Cherub? I’d be happy to help with translations (I’m near Zurich).
4 Likes
Thanks for that offer, I’m in Basel and his work colleagues have said if I need the support of a German speaker they will help.
My biggest issues at the moment are mainly not being able to get into his phone or computer (the latter is set up for work purposes as he WFH 2 days a week). This means I can’t get into any messages or emails that may have come from the agency his contract is with. I don’t have any paperwork for them, it’s all done online.
When I was on the tram to the hospital yesterday his phone had a call from the company handling the payroll for the agency, again I couldn’t get the name and number so couldn’t call them from my own phone.
I went to bed not long after 9 last night, but was awake worrying at 3am 
1 Like
Someone where he works will know the agency and can call them on Monday. Don’t waste energy worrying about that.
1 Like
So sorry to hear about your OH, Cherub. I hope he gradually improves and makes a smooth recovery. Wishing you both all the very best.
1 Like
I’m so sorry, Cherub. My best wishes for your OH’s recovery, and for you at this difficult time.
1 Like
I managed to find out a bit more,went to a police station this afternoon which was listed online as open until 3pm on Saturdays, but is now closed on Saturdays 
As I turned to walk away lo and behold 3 uniformed police crossing the street so I stopped them and they were very helpful.
Took all the details and photos of both our IDs along with a business card with my number and email. I have to put my phone to flight mode at the hospital, when I came out and switched it back on there was a message telling me where the accident happened and as there was no damage to the bike and nobody else involved the police locked it up at the site of the accident (there’s a railing where there are loads of bikes and scooters). It is 4 short stops by tram from our apartment so it must have happened shortly after he left home.
He’s still not very lucid but they managed to get him to eat today and some movement has returned to the left side which is hopeful. He also asked me if he was in university hospital today, yesterday he kept repeating he didn’t know where he was. He also mentioned names of some colleagues and asked if they knew what had happened.
I think I might sleep tonight which is good, last night was dreadful, I did a meditation and breathing exercise to calm myself down before getting ready to leave home today.
6 Likes
Thanks for the update. Some good news there. Hopefully soon the doctors will allow visitors and seeing some of his colleagues may help with his memory. Of course don’t listen to me, ask his medical team !!!
Did the cops lock it up with his own locks? And do you know the combination?
1 Like
I have no idea but there would have been a bike lock in the pannier.
TBH his bike is about 6 years old, not an expensive one and at the moment I couldn’t care less if it gets nicked. He went to Spain on his own in January to visit his friend who’s not in the best of health and when he was there the pannier on it was stolen from the velo room here, he had to buy a new one.
Residents have had a number of parcel thefts from the building and bikes stolen in the past couple of years, a lot of young guys have moved into the building during that time and they keep letting guys delivering stuff like JustEats in, they don’t come down in the lift to collect. Once someone has been let into the building they’re free to wander about - neighbour directly above me found someone hanging around on his floor 3 weeks ago.
That’s a positive sign and hopefully the start of the road to full recovery.
Take care of yourself Cherub, you’ve had a shock and you’ll need to be strong for him over the coming weeks but you need to take time for you as well.
He’s in the best place now and I assume the hospital and doing tests to try to figure out what’s going on.
Maybe the brain bleed occurred before the accident rather than as a result of it and that’s what led him to fall from his bike.
3 Likes
Assuming he had an MRI, they are normally pretty good at detecting whether the bleed was a result of a blow to the head or from a stroke-type hemorrhage which caused the accident.
My MRI from last month was pretty explicit in that it was caused by a blow to the head because of the location and type of hemorrhages.
If Cherub’s OH ends up not remembering the point up to the accident then I suppose they may never find out what made him fall.
@Cherub: excellent news that he’s made some progress!
1 Like
The hospital have told me this was definitely as a result of hitting his head, there is absolutely no evidence of stroke and everything like his blood pressure is normal. I asked about the possibility of stroke when I first saw him because of the left side immobility and his face (his mouth is drooping slightly) but they assured me this has been caused by the concussion he’s suffered. He has a dressing on the back of his head because it was bleeding a bit from there but it had stopped today and there was no blood on the pillow.
They asked if he could have been drinking as at that point we didn’t know he hadn’t made it to his snooker game, but I said no because he doesn’t really drink if he has his bike. It seems when he was in A and E he had said to the doctors “I think I’m drunk” in his confused state. However, now the police have established where it happened and at what time he never made it there. When I managed to get him to open his phone for a short period one of the texts was from the friend he was meeting asking where he was.
2 Likes
I have to ask, was he wearing a helmet?
2 Likes
Don’t even go there…
I hope your husband is doing better?
People might find it a bit “stalky” but I’m very glad me & husband have each other on find my friends - hopefully if something similar were to happen to either of us, it would help us figure out where the other was instead of having to call police & hospitals etc.
1 Like
Regarding the helmet question, it was stated that the police did not see any damage to the bicycle … i imagine ‘accident’ is out of the question.
1 Like
Not much change today, mainly asleep but on the left side of his face the droop looked slightly better. I’m now noticing bruises all over his forearms coming out.
He was able to tell me his birthday and my birthday but not the years we were born; he couldn’t remember our wedding anniversary, said November then May (it’s the 27th of this month, 40 years).
At one point he thought he was in prison, then he kept asking the nurses why he couldn’t go home with his wife (at the moment it’s like dealing with my dad when he was in the middle stages of dementia, same questions being asked all the time). Hospital have said he could be in for 3 weeks.
I went by where the police said his bike was locked up, but couldn’t identify the one that was his (all of them were black). His had a grey pannier on either side and none had that, but I couldn’t care less if it’s been stolen tbh.
One positive thing, I managed to get into his emails tonight, he’s set up as a user on my computer and I just had a hunch what his password might be, was right first time. That’s a great help to me 
6 Likes
Probably the surroundings of the hospital isn’t helping much with his confusion and is forcing him to keep asking the same questions just to get some anchor points back into his memory. I would guess that when he’s able to go home, his recovery will really speed up once he’s in familiar surroundings and his brain recalls the muscle memory of all the rooms, fixture, fittings, twists and turns in your house.
4 Likes
Tbh, it’s kind of taken me back to when I was my dad’s carer before he went to a geriatric ward, then a care home.
I realised last night the reason I was feeling a bit faint and had a headache was because I hadn’t really eaten much since Wednesday before all this happened. Gave myself a talking to this morning and said this is silly, you need to be strong at the moment. Looked in my fridge and prepared a load of stuff before going to the hospital so when I come back from visiting there’s something easy to hand I can just heat.
There was another lady there sitting by the bed of a man who looked to have had a stroke, she had a book. Made a mental note to take my Kindle so when he’s asleep I can stay there and read.
6 Likes
@Cherub, talk to him…he can hear you, even if you think he’s not awake. Read to him something that might jar his older memories. My cousin was unconscious; kicked in the head by a steel boot in a motorcycle race–my mother sat by his hospital bed for two weeks talking to him and reading to him. He remembered almost everything she said.
3 Likes
Cherub - I’m just reading this now. What a scary time for you both.
A few suggestions, if I may be so bold:
- Keep your phone on vibrate instead of silent or airplane mode. You need to be reachable even when in the hospital.
- Next time you need him to unlock his phone, ask him to let you watch the code so you can help him (and you) to remember it.
- Write down a list of things you don’t know but need to, and when he’s lucid ask him a few of those questions.
I don’t know what hospitals here allow in terms of bringing things into the room. In the US, doctors sometimes recommend bringing familiar scents - things like a piece of your clothes with your perfume on it, using a pillowcase with the familiar smell of your washing powder, etc. If you’re allowed to bring pictures, you can bring ones that might help his memory too - a wedding photo, a photo of your living room, etc.
As others have said and you are doing - keep taking care of yourself. 
This is a good reminder for all of us to make sure our loved ones know how to get into our electronic devices and important accounts, how to contact colleagues and friends, etc. Someone above mentioned putting emergency contact information in your phone. Here is a thread from another forum that has links on how to do that. Apologies for the ads embedded in the Android link. I still found the instructions to be useful.
3 Likes