8 May 2011

I had a bit of a fright last night eating my supper. Something ‘went down the wrong way’ as they say and I choked and choked for the best part of an hour before I cleared the obstruction. It was quite frightening and I hope that this is not a sign that my throat muscles are beginning to weaken. I know that swallowing can become a difficulty with MND patients.

I shall speak to Dr Chris Allen, my next assessment, as to whether one of their suction machines would be sensible for me to keep on hand when I am eating

We did our own thing in the early morning following our old routine but I did not attempt to walk into the bathroom for a shower. I believe the caring proper may start early next week, once the paperwork is being completed, and then I suppose the carers will take over from Alice, even in the morning. In the meantime apparently we are paying for it ourselves.

We are extremely lucky in the proximity of both the main office for Ross Nursing – no more than 100 yards or so away – where there is an office staff of eight, and both Harriet and Sam live no more than three quarters of a mile away. In effect, at present, we only need them to get me out of the chair onto my frame and after that I can then walk- after a fashion – into the bedroom and be undressed and put to bed by ‘my lovely’ in the normal way. However, as the idea is to give Alice a break, at this stage, she merely points out what routine we have established so they can adopt it. Harriet is terribly conscientious and comes herself at present to supervise whichever nurse who has been allocated to us.

.As I had hoped, Bill and Ben, who came mid-morning to fit sides onto the ramps and do a few other jobs, helped me up onto my frame around lunchtime to give me a short walk and Harriet popped in in the evening for the same purpose. This, after they hoiked me into my electric wheelchair to enable me to test my prowess in going up the ramp to the outside and back. Then I had intended to try driving me chair straight into the study up to my desk to see if I would be able to operate my laptop from the it After all a lot of disabled people are put straight into their wheelchair from their bed and spend the entire day in it so I do not see why I shouldn’t try, at least, using it from lunchtime until the six o’clock walk Then, on those warm sunny days I can take advantage of going outside of my own. The problem today was there appeared to be something wrong with the battery and the wheelchair just simply would not move after the first few yards, so I shall have to get the people who rent them out to the NHS to come here tomorrow to see what is the trouble. I am very much hoping that the chair will be up and running by Wednesday when my mother and Richard are being driven down from Church Stretton, Shropshire, to have lunch with us, hopefully in the garden.

Harriet came around 6.00 to give me my evening walk and then at 930, a nice new nurse, Paula – in fact someone we have known for many years – came with Harriet to help me through to the bedroom. So the new routine begins.                                    
Yesterday I recounted how I had been riding camels and horses in the grasslands of Mongolia. When I received the following pictures from one of my pals in the USA, I recalled an incident with an elephant, which happened to us, in the Kruger National Park, South Africa in 1964. The following photographs are reminiscent of that incident but, on that occasion we were fortunate enough to be able to drive away before the charging elephant reached us. I had heard from someone else that if the elephant is really angry he can pierce your car with its tasks. The following photographs were taken on Thursday, Feb. 17, this year by someone from Centurion in Pilanesberg game reserve/,South Africa. The guy in the white Volkswagen was only trying to get past the elephant but the elephant wasn’t having any of it.