1 (UPBEAT PIANO MUSIC) Captions by Julie Taylor. Edited by Alana Drayton. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 All right, Terry, so let's just review that information we were talking about. (MUMBLES) OK. So what year are we in? 2012 or 2016? 2012. We're in 2016. 2016. Andrea? Can you help me...? Terry was in a severe accident while driving his truck. Uh, it jackknifed and he was ejected from the cab. Phone rang about half past 9 at night. It was Terry's boss's wife just saying, 'Haven't you heard?' And I said, 'No, what?' Sort of got that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. And she just said that he'd had a truck accident. He was bringing a load back. We don't know what happened. Probably never will know what happened. There was no other vehicles involved. Somebody just came around the corner, and the truck was on its side and Terry was lying on the road next to the truck. Oh, spare tyres... Hug me. What are the spare tyres for? Oh, oh, my truck. Um, I want to go have a` I wanna have a` um... I um` um... wanna go have a two-day party. A two-day party? Yes. Who's that with? I don't know. Somebody. I think what I've seen with Terry is quite a significant brain injury. I think it's too early to say... What's happened. ...what the outcome's going to be. Probably the simple answer that doesn't help you is that at this stage, we don't know. How are you feeling this morning? What day would today be? (MUMBLES) At the moment, Terry is in what we call post-traumatic amnesia, which is a stage which he is unable to actually be orientated to where he is or what he's doing. He's quite confused and quite agitated. He won't know where he is. He won't recognise probably familiar people. Again, he may recognise some. He won't recall what's happened since his injury, more than likely. He's very loud and funny. Big personality with a big heart. He's hands on; loves doing anything with cars. Jack of all trades. We're sort of friends as well as husband and wife. Pretty busy. We don't, sort of, have a lot of spare time. My job's seven days a week, Terry works five days a week. Then there's our sons, Kevin and Antony. Oh, we're all the same. We all laugh and joke and be idiots. That's the way we cope. And so what city are we in right now? (MUMBLES) We're in West Auckland at a place called ABI Rehabilitation. So one thing that we aim for at ABI is for clients to emerge from post-traumatic amnesia, and a big part of that is just going over those key facts of what's the date? Um, how old are you? Where are you right now? What city are you in? Looks like I'm kind of bothering him and I continue to talk to him. I'm just trying to get him to keep that engagement with me. Keep attending to me. So today's Monday. Monday, supposed to be a workday, yes. Monday's a workday? Supposed to be, yes. Yeah, that's right. The way we look at it is he's in there somewhere, and so we're just encouraging him to come back out. You know, some of the little funny things he says and does is so him. I'm overpaid. I'm over` I'm over strength, though. Look who's here. Um, just waiting for, um... Had some beers at the VIP. Yeah, yep. Thank you. We've already done this before with Kevin's accident. I was 16. I was a pedestrian, got hit by a car. I guess, yeah, you never know how you're gonna be with a brain injury. I guess it's` I mean, there's heaps of different ways it's going to affect you. (MUMBLES INDISTINCTLY) I know that he's gonna` it's gonna be a longer rehabilitation. It was, like, the frustration. Like, with myself, that I couldn't` couldn't do stuff and, you know, Dad's gonna have to go through it. (MUMBLES) I'm overpaid. As simple as talking, having a conversation and, like, things you would take for granted. You know, someone asking you how you were and then... You're not knowing how to actually... (MUMBLES INDISTINCTLY) Badly put together, eh? (SOBS) (SOMBRE GUITAR MUSIC) Goodnight, guys. Goodnight. Goodnight, mate. The best-case scenario would be Terry discharging to be home with his family. Worst-case scenario would be Terry gets discharged to, maybe, a long-term residential facility in which he can't live with his family, and so I think at ABI, our goal is to get people to that` their highest level of independence. (DOOR SENSOR BEEPS) Good morning, how are you? Good, thanks. Yeah, the hardest thing I find at the moment is having to leave him. I'd rather` I'd rather be able to just stay here all the time. It's about 260 K's from Kaikohe to Auckland. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC BUILDS) (SIGHS) Good morning. What's that picture of? That truck is my truck. Yeah, it is, isn't it? That's your Big Mack truck, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Who's that? That's you and Jason. That's right. When we went and picked him up from kindy that day, wasn't it? Oh, was it? Yeah. Remember how happy he was? Yeah. Do you remember that big ice cream we got? Yes, I do. Yeah, I do. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) That's right, yeah. Yeah, I remember them explaining, um, think of your brain as a filing cabinet, and you've tipped all the files out in a big pile, and you've now got to put them back in the right place. Where's that? Do you know where that is? Um... Do you think it might be the Puhoi Pub? It could be too. Last time you saw him, he was quite confused and in a delirious state. So he's starting to progress out of that state at the moment, and I'm going to start doing a Westmead PTA tool, and we're just going to start seeing if he's becoming more orientated; and it's a tool that lets us, um, assess when he's able to, um, recall things. OK. Do you remember I've been asking you some questions each day? Um, mm... yep. Sort of, sort of. We're just trying to get back some memory, aren't you? That's right, yeah. OK. Can you tell me ` how old are you, Terry? I'm 20-something. 25. 25? That's quite young. 30. I'm 30. Am I 30, Andrea? Andrea can't help you with these questions. I'll give you the right answer when we've finished. OK. Have you got grown-up children? Yes, I have. So, if you're 25, do you think that's gonna be right? Um, mm... no. When he did his, um, speech therapy yesterday, she went around the room and every item she picked up, he got it right. So, um, the deodorant, it took him a little bit longer, but he` he just said, you know, 'This goes under my arms.' (LAUGHS) Did say he only uses it twice a year, but... (LAUGHS) Is it true? (LAUGHS) No! But yeah, no, he was, like, he` he` they showed him straws and toothbrushes and shavers and he got all of them right. So that's a huge improvement, as well. So, we're gonna go 'Ready, steady, stand,' OK? Ready? Ready. Steady. Stand. Are you ready? We're ready. Good. When Terry first came in and he was tossing and turning, we knew he had quite good strength, but the main problem was he wasn't alert, he wasn't following instructions, he was completely confused, and also he's getting that light-headedness the minute he stood dow` stood up. He's becoming more alert of his surroundings now and following instructions much better. One. You want me to count to what? 30. 30. One. One, two, three, four... 21, 30. (LAUGHTER) 21, 22... 21, 22, 23, 24. Yeah, getting out. (CHUCKLES) That way. Yep. To the right. To the right? Out the door. Out the door. This way, mate. Follow me. I suppose it's harder for Terry because he's so confused. He wouldn't be aware that he wasn't able to walk previously or that he hadn't walked for four or five weeks. He doesn't have that realisation that he's made that massive step. We're gonna turn around, Terry. Yep. We're gonna head back inside. Now I want you to turn around, keep your feet there and then sit down. OK. There you go. Can we sit up? Or you want to lie down. Just lie down. Just all on my papers. That's OK. Hi, Portia. Yep, sure, surely. Sure. I'll just remove your dressing. You're not gonna rip my hair off? Oh, no, no. You're gonna be careful? I'll do my best not to rip it. OK. OK, well, that's good. OK then. Well, he seems to be moving forward a lot quicker now than he was. Yeah, I don't see him for four days and I just can't believe the difference. How is that, guys? Is that all right? Is that what you want to see? Yeah. What do you reckon? Oh, I think it's marvellous. I see Terry in the mirror. That guy that used to have a truck accident, but he's coming right now, so... yep. He's OK. Yeah. Same, same? Different guy? Uh, s` nah, nah, it's a different guy. He's a better guy. Yep. Definitely a better guy. He's got good family around him. Seems to be getting pretty emotional when you bring it up. Can't believe he crashed the truck and that sort of thing, and that tends to get him crying. Just means he's actually getting better because he's being more aware. It's not good. Not good. Even the mornings. You wake up and say, 'What the (BLEEP) am I doing here for?' And you can't walk properly. But I will. I'll come back. I know I'll walk properly. (SUBDUED MUSIC) (GENTLE CHATTER) I can cook. Well, I used to be able to cook. I haven't done any cooking for a long, long time. OK. We want to cut the capsicums up for the salad. OK. So, you can do it` I'm pretty sure` I'm pretty sure` I think I still remember how to do that. I think you probably can too. So, an occupational therapist role actually encompasses a whole part of someone's life, so we look at helping people identify what they find difficult to do now, and then find ways that we can help them re-achieve the roles or the activities they want to do. With Terry, it's then about looking at doing some building work with him, doing some meal prep roles that he'd do at home. I could go for a quick walk now. OK, let's go for a walk. Yeah. Take your time. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) Um, I'm just trying to straighten my back out. It's very, very sore. (DOOR KEYPAD BUTTONS BEEP) Sit on the edge of the bed, Terry, and then we'll take the belt off. Yep. OK. Thank you. Oh, disappointing. No, no, it's all right. It's not all right. It is, because last week you couldn't do the barbecue group at all. No, I started it. So you did half of it this time. Started it and couldn't finish it. It's not being good, I tell ya. Well, it's an impact of the actual, um, truck accident that Terry had. One of the things that happened apart from the brain injury is that he broke` um, fractured his scapula, I think, from memory. Yeah, scapula. That's right. That's right, yep. And so for Terry, um, with the constant moving and everything else, they decided to treat it conservatively. Yeah. And I suppose because now you're becoming more settled and less confused, Terry, you're being` you're able to distinguish the pain. I'll just put the wheat bag behind. Whereabouts do you want it? Right on here. Is that better? (MELLOW GUITAR MUSIC) I'm feeling pretty good, actually, to be honest with you. My brain feels normal, but I think I can make it better. It is quite hard because you're not` you're not, um, 100%, so you're not thinking as hard as what you should. Um, but, yes, it's not too bad. And Kevin's been good because he's had a brain injury and he's been helping me out quite good. Excuse me. (RUBS HANDS TOGETHER) (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) He comes into that car park there. That car park out the back. We can` We can` We can hop in and walk out there, if you want. See if` where he is. Was that someone at the front door? Go and see. Shall we go and see? Go and see if it's Kevin? Go and see if it is. Could be. Hey, boy. You're here. Yeah. This guy here, he likes Holdens today. Today. Today only. Just today? (CHUCKLES) Just today. Putting your own shoes on now, mate? Yeah, I am. I'm putting my shoes on every day, yeah. Yourself? Yep. Yeah, they keep saying to me, 'Are you OK?' Yeah. Nah. I say, 'Nah. Get out of my way. I'm gonna have a shit.' (BOTH LAUGH) I think, like, Dad's accident's made me really think about it because, well, I had heaps of issues with speaking and, like, word-finding and stuff like that, so it's like, having a dictionary and someone ripping a couple of pages out so you'd, like, substitute words that you know, but they're stuck on the tip of your tongue. I think Kevin was probably luckier having his at 16 cos, um, the young brain will regenerate, whereas the older brain has to find new pathways. That's what I sort of tell Terry ` 'Oh, you're just like Kevin. Kevin got better so, so will you.' Might not be to that same extent as Kevin, but if he can get home and he can be happy, that's all that matters. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES) My goals? To get better and get out of here and go home. I want to start working again. Terry is aware that he won't be able to drive for a stand-down period of six months. And, actually, to get back into driving with a commercial licence is going to be extremely difficult. Hi, Terry. Hi. So, remember we've done some assessments, and we looked at different types of skills you have? Yep, that's right. And now I just want to look at the practical skills that you'd use around home. Yep. OK. So that's your window. Let's have a little bit more light. So, what do you think? Can we shorten these so they can only open up so far? No, cos they're not on the ratchet. I was looking at Terry's cognition and his thinking, planning and problem-solving skills. So, this is the shed here, Terry, OK. Just looking at the really practical ` is he able to plan it? Can he sequence it? Does he have all the information? Can he process the written information? Can he translate to how he's going to use the tools? Has he got the right tools? Can he do the task? What about if you read number one? OK, well, I can read that, number one. OK. 'Use the cam spanner...' oh... 'Using the cam spanner, disengage the arm from the fork. 'Using an Allen key provided, remove the screw located at the end of the arm.' Yep. There. OK. Yep. I think we've got the right stuff here now. These are around the wrong way. You can take it outside and put it on the outside wall. If we put it on the outside wall, how would it work? Yeah, that's what I'm going to think about. I'm just going back outside. When we did the window, Terry did struggle with how he was going to do it. See, that will screw into there. Right? But he made some really good choices. When he was going to screw the bolts into the window where he thought it would be, he was concerned he would break the glass, and he was probably right. I think it would annoy the crap out of me too if I lived here and something was sticking out this far, cos you'd smack your arm on it every time. Every time. Yep, absolutely, that's why we're trying to fix it. Yeah, it'd annoy ya. Yep. Don't want to cause anyone an injury, do you? No. No. No. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) Nice day. Right. Today, I'm going home for the first time since I've been here. It'll be great to experience the, um, home living. Um, yeah. Right, I suppose I'd better pack some clothes away. Brain injuries are all completely different and you just don't know. Even the doctors and that don't really know what the outcome's gonna be. In a relationship, you always have things that irritate each other in different ways. And even` you have people say, 'Oh, maybe he'll be` he'll be better!' and I went, 'No, I want him the way he was.' You know, I married him for who he was, I don't want him to be a different person, you know? So, I mean, that's what you sort of hope, I suppose, in the back of your mind, that he will be able to return to be the person he was. I just packed a few things... OK. ...that I think I need. Yep. OK? OK. You just need one long sleeve` one more of these. Have you got another one of these in your cupboard? Um, I'm not sure. Um, I can have a look in the drawer. OK. So what am I looking for? Uh, shirt like you've got on now. The big long-sleeve one. Oh. Have you got any undies in here? Um, no. No. So, Terry, when you go home this weekend, that you don't try and do all these big jobs. I know that. You can't go and use your welder. No. You can't go and use your tools. No. You can't, um, leap on a quad bike or tractors or` No. No. OK, so it's going to be quite a quiet weekend. Yeah, yeah. I'm 100% sure that I won't do it. Oh. I'm 100% sure you won't, either. Nah. Nah. (LAUGHS) I'll be a good pers` Cos I've told Andrea. Yeah. I'll be a good person. Right. Let's go home. The big trip. First thing we're gonna do ` we're gonna hop in the car and go home. (LAUGHS) Yep. When you get home, what's the first thing you're gonna do? Um, well... no, I think I might just go for a little walk around the place and have a look. (CAR ENGINE STARTS) Taking Terry home for his first weekend back home, so it'll be interesting to see how he responds. OK, we're going through a highway. Heading to Kaikohe. Best-case scenario would be he does what he's told. (LAUGHS) Doesn't overdo things and just lies back and has a nice, relaxing weekend. Right. This is our kennels. Um, this is our house. We're home. Hey, Eddie! Hey, Ed. (DOGS BARK) Hello, mate. Hello! Do you want your cup, Andrea? Yeah, do you remember which one it is? Yep. This is your cup. You happy with that? Yep. OK, cool. OK. So you can talk to me. (CHUCKLES) (BARKING) What do you think about me being home? I dunno yet. You haven't been here long enough. Oh, OK. Fair comment. (CHUCKLES) Can't wait to do some mowing just to prove that, yeah, I can mow. Yep. (LAWNMOWER MOTOR HUMS) Every time I ask him if he's OK, he just goes, 'I'm all right,' and I go, 'Well, that's not really what I want to know. I wanna know if you've got pain or if you've` 'you know, if you're feeling tired,' because I said, 'It's no good just saying you're OK when you're not.' I said to him he's lost his inner strength and he needs to just build that up. You don't want` You don't want to overdo it. Probably enough now, eh? I had to stop mowing the lawn otherwise I get tired and fatigued. It just makes me tired, so just thought it'd be the right time to stop so that's why I gave it to Andrea to use. Yeah. And you thought it was OK? Yep. Nice to operate, isn't it? Yep. Very smooth and that, yeah. It gets a bit noisy. Did you want me to go and cook a pikelet? Mm, yeah, probably, you'd better. You'd better have a drink too, eh? Yep. I think that's flour. Um, plain flour, yep. I am allowed to say, 'Told you so,' if it doesn't work? (CHUCKLES) At the moment, it's glue. It's glue! (LAUGHS) Glue pikelets. Mate, these'll be perfect. One bite of these ` you'll fizz. (BOTH LAUGH) (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) This is just lovely sitting here, eating these. Is it? Yep. You gotta make me pudding too, remember? Yeah, I'll make you pudding. When? Tomorrow. You've got lots of cooking to do tomorrow. Yeah, I'm gonna make` I'm making you ginger pudding. I promised you that. He's still the same Terry but just a little bit different. He was probably always that, but he was so busy. You know, he worked such long hours and that, and then on the weekends, he'd he working on the house, so... Whereas now, it's almost like you're getting to know each other again sort of thing. It's weird. It's` yeah. Um, it's just good to be home and give you a bit of a cuddle again. Yep. OK. You enjoyed that? Yeah. Oh, that's good. (COUNTRY MUSIC) (JEEP ENGINE STARTS) Terry got discharged from ABI. It's been really good just having him with me all the time and being a lot bigger part of his rehab. I'm almost like one of Terry's therapists, and` and just monitoring what he's doing and giving him little jobs to help build his confidence back up and help him get his` his strength and his... get all his brain working properly. Nothing's ever easy, is it? (HAMMERING) I go for a 2K walk every morning with Andrea. She actually` she makes sure I do` I do those things every day, which is` I didn't like at first, but I actually like it now because it's just routine and it keeps me fit. Uh, everything that he does requires a lot more concentration and thinking before he does it. But he's really good. He just sort of sits back and` and thinks about what he's doing. Anyway, Terry, I think it's getting a bit hot. We might... give this up for the day, eh? Yeah, OK. All right. And have another go tomorrow. Yeah, it's a bit of a pity, but anyway. OK. We'll` We'll do that. (BARKING) (KNOCKING) Yeah, just come in, yeah. How are you, Terry? Good, thank you. Good. Nice to see you. Yeah. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. 2017 now. 2017. Yeah. So, I'm looking at your daily schedule. This is a tool we like to use to help you manage your fatigue, and it also manages your time. And as we talked about with the brain injury, it is about fatigue management. Yeah, so you don't get that zoom and bank. Yeah, b` boom and bust. Boom and bust, that's the one. So that we can` So that you can manage the week,... Yep. ...and do activities over the week,... Yep. ...um, without, um, becoming extremely fatigued or having to be in bed for three days or feeling completely wiped out. I like the fact that you've got some consistency in your week. You've got your morning walk. And then it looks like you like to tackle something practical. Yep, I do. I do` do a bit of practical work. So in terms of cognitive activities, this is great rehab. You're problem solving. Yep. You're having to attend and concentrate for various periods of time. Remember, if it becomes too much ` stop, walk away. Yep, yep. Reschedule a time. I'm actually getting better and better at that. I'm thinking about what I'm gonna do for work when I get better ` I'm confident that I will drive again ` and getting my independence back cos it's... I can't rely on Andrea to take me everywhere, um, cos she` you know, she's got things to do as well. So it's gonna be nice that I can actually hop in the` go walk out` outside and just hop in the car and drive it to where we gotta go. (LAID-BACK GUITAR MUSIC) (WHISTLING) Terry's come so far. I mean, you know, there was a while there, he... The first six weeks where he was really not making much improvement at all and you did sort of wonder whether he was ever gonna come right, and then` and then it just happened really quickly. It's warm, but it's not burn-your-skin off warm. You just don't know what you're gonna get, and I think you've just, sort of, gotta focus on forward and not backwards and hope that it'll all come right. It's a bit like the pancakes ` it's starting to make me fizz. (CHUCKLES) Terry. No, no positives come out of this whole journey at all because the journey had` it` it put me in a life, um... Yeah, it just` it` yes, it stuffed me up a lot. It's definitely slowed me down, yep. It's given me heaps more time with the family and heaps more time to think about my future moves and that. That is the life, just sitting here. It's actually changed the things about how I want to live now. I just wanna take each day as it comes. I'm not touching you, you spy. (BOTH LAUGH) Captions by Julie Taylor. Edited by Alana Drayton. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017