15 January 2011

I had a better night last night, virtually no pain or discomfort, so I really don’t understand what is the problem. In fact, I even noticed doing my morning exercise in bed that it was a little easier than the day before so there must be some variation, day-to-day, with one’s muscle strength. Yesterday, I was talking about MND patients plateauing out and I must confess that I have not noticed a great deal of deterioration over the past two or three months in the strength of my arms. They are weak but I can still raise them to the level of my shoulders, both in front and side. As long as they stay in this condition I will be able to continue to use my walking frame, and also, with the aid of the plastic splint on my left forefinger, continue to poke at the laptop and therefore not having to entirely depend upon voice activation.

Little  granddaughter Lara’s birthday yesterday. I can hardly believe that she’s six already. I had a pretty one-sided telephone conversation with her getting monosyllabic answers to most of my questions and comments. I think at that age the children still find the telephone slightly intimidating, or maybe it’s me who intimidates them – I hope not. For her birthday I think we gave her some item of clothing which she wanted. She has had a great deal of excitement recently for a little girl, firstly Christmas, in three different households, followed by a visit to the ballet at Covent Garden,  and then the following night to Oliver, our Christmas present to the Volz family and a birthday party.

In my entry on 11 January I was mentioning the difficulty I was beginning to have  turning over in bed. Pauline, one of my readers from Somerset, very kindly suggested that I looked at some purpose made sheets which she described as:

Wendylett sheets from Romedic. These have been very useful for some of my MND clients with difficulties in turning. They consist of a fitted bottom sheet with a satin centre panel which is covered by a cotton oversheet lined with satin. They can be locked by tucking under thus reducing the risk of sliding too far

I pulled up Romedics webpage and they certainly seem to have a number of accessories which might be useful. Unfortunately there are situated in the USA so it’s difficult to speak to anyone direct but I’m going to try to get some more information out of Pamela, in particular, to see if these sheets can be purchased in the UK.

Son Smiler came to lunch today and during his visit took some photographs for me of the snooker table which I will then have available for any interested party. I must say the children are very good, both of them coming down on a fairly regular basis to see the ‘old man’. The highlight of the visit was Smiler showing us a beautiful oil painting of a Lady, which he acquired quite recently. Smiler runs his own art gallery in Lower Sloane Street, and has made quite a name for himself specialising in Welsh and British Art.( www.mileswynncato.co.uk )

I’m still having trouble sorting out the best way to download media, in particular in Photos and Videos. If I’m having trouble that probably means that the readers are also having trouble clicking onto them when they appear, highlighted in red, in the diary entry. Sometimes, having clicked on the highlighted  item the actual photograph button appears in the bottom tray of the screen and you have to press that. So the readers will have to use a little ingenuity for the time being until I can sort things out but I do urge you all to look at these add-ons as most of them are fascinating or spectacular, the like of which you may never see again. I will have another attempt now and add a slideshow of some really historical pictures. Old_Pics.pps

England lost the second of the 20/20 cricket series against Australia by four runs, in the last over – one all.