It has been an extremely hot day so the focus was on keeping cool. The heat also affected Fela’s keloids as he was scratching them a lot, and making them bleed. In the end, I put plasters on them but throughout the day, I gave him several aloe leaves to apply to them for a soothing and healing effect.
The highlights of the day were as follows:
- Playing on tongue drum after breakfast before snack to the sound of George Benson in concert.
- Michael made a blueberry bread and butter pudding in the morning so Fela was offered the bowl to lick which he enjoyed.
- Fela watched Breathe online church service followed by T.D. Jakes which he became very excited at the prospect of watching. I found a picture of him online and printed it off for the board.
- We telephone Nanna Hazel and were finally able to sing ‘Happy birthday’ to her live and direct. Fela enjoyed eavesdropping on the conversation. as she is very entertaining to listen to.
- I gave Fela a choice between more T.D. Jakes and a DVD. He chose ‘Call of the Wild’. Michael sat with him whilst I did some Admin upstairs.
- After dinner, I prompted Fela to sit on the ball whilst we played some dance music on youtube. I wanted to distract him from scratching his keloids, so I gave him a special comb to comb his hair which he found calming.
- He entered the bath at 21:30, and was full of smiles when he came out.
- Fela was in bed by 22:50 as the routine was delayed due to the heat. At the time of writing, upstairs has cooled down significantly but is still quite warm. Fan was left on and door left ajar; only the duvet cover used to cover him, I prompted him to put on eye mask.
All in all, Fela has coped remarkably well with the heat. He was dressed in cool cotton fabrics, plenty of fluids given, lots of ventilation was facilitated throughout the house including bringing the fan downstairs where he spent most of the day. Fela’s favourite request was ice lolly but I didn’t have any so I explained that I would make him some for Tuesday because they needed a lot of time to harden in the freezer. He seemed to accept this, and alternatives were offered e.g. tea with lemon, cordial.
Arousal States – Start: 1 Baseline End: 1 Baseline Did his state change? Yes to 2a – Vocal Fela was vocal in the morning after waking so I decided to give him echinacea x 2 as a precaution in case he was suffering from hayfever symptoms e.g. scratching of throat which I also observed. Did he have a bowel movement? Yes Bristol score: Was Fela incontinent?: No Did he have vigorous exercise?: Yes – Bouncing on gym ball for about 15 minutes after dinner.
