9 March 2012
Had a reasonable night so far as the pain is concerned but had problems with the respirator. For some reason, which we couldn’t fathom out, the alarm kept going off on the machine, sometimes for 30 seconds or so. That would normally only happen if the was a severe leak between the machine and the patient’s mask . I had reverted to the ‘nose only’ mask and at one stage wondered whether I would be able to breathe properly through it as I had a snuffly nurse which and not yet turned into a full-blown cold. However, I stuck to my guns and we got through the night with the good Dr Michael coming down two or three times, roughly the same times as’ my lovely’. During the day we switched the respirator machines as we had a spare one in the study for emergencies. As I’m going to Papworth within the next couple of weeks I will take both machines with me and have them checked over.
The big excitement of the day was lunch at The Cricketers with Dr. Michael and my good son, Smiler, who come down especially to meet the Dr. and show his gratitude for the kindness in relieving Alice from time to time. Although they had met briefly before it was a good opportunity for them to have a good chat over lunch and get to know each other a little better. I made the mistake of having the small steak and kidney pie with the suet pastry. Absolutely delicious but I could scarcely managed to read half of it. Fortunately Michael, who always exhibits a healthy appetite, managed to polish off half a pot of muscles, which I had left from my starter, plus the rest of my pie, so nothing is wasted.
We then went back to the house and into the breakfast room where we had coffee and I was able to smoke a small cigar. By this time, to be honest, I was feeling a little weary. Just socialising for three hours takes its toll on me. Smiler had another appointment on the way home and so left around 3.00.
l the rest of the day I spent either watching me Six Nations Rugby Championship, reading or listening to music. We did watch some television. But I nodded off and cannot recall what it was.