27 May 2011

Disaster struck this morning.’ My lovely’, who had been feeling a little off-colour for a day or two, had a severe liver attack and was so ill she was unable to even contemplate making the journey to Cornwall for the marriage of our niece, Augustus Grand (Gus) to Desmond Hobson (Des). Dear Harriet, from Ross Nursing, leapt to the rescue and came round leaving her half finished breakfast on the table and took charge. After some consultation with Alice she begged me to go to the wedding to represent the family and, at least, knowing that way she could spend a couple of days, perhaps in bed, recovery has strength, reluctantly I agreed as I felt the rest for her would be beneficial and frankly there was nothing I could do ,in any event, as well as the fact that under those circumstances I would have needed a 24/7 nurse on hand to attend to my personal needs. On balance then the wedding seemed the best option.

 

None of this would be possible without the services of Barry and Denise who were absolutely wonderful in getting me in and out of the car, feeding me and attending to my lavatory needs. I really don’t think we could find any other couple who could perform these tasks so efficiently and with such care.

 

The journey down was uneventful enough except that we got snarled up in traffic coming towards Bristol which made our arrival rather late. As it was important that Denise got some food inside her for her diabetes I suggested that they got a snack of the local pub after dropping me off with Tor and family who were fortuitously just about to sit down to supper to which they kindly invited me (not really having much choice) but, in any event, with my dear sister-in-law’s anyone could turn up at any time of the day or night and still be assured of a warm welcome. What was so nice for me was not a me seeing the bride Augusta but also her friends – the two girls who were her bridesmaids at our first wedding 20 odd years ago, Lavinia and Tabitha and their now married appendages, Mike and Andrew. More importantly I was able to spend a few moments with my dear mother-in-law (have I said 100 times she will be 100 in September). Of course she was very sorry that Alice didn’t make it but I’m sure was pleased that I was there to represent our part of the family.

 

Barry and Denise returned around the 11ish, having had some fish and chips, and brought me back to the Olde House, where we had booked accommodation, which was only a mile or so from my brother and sister-in-law. In the meantime, Barry and Denise had very kindly unpack the car, made my bed and set things up and it took no time at all to get me into bed with the respirator on an. And so ended what could have been an utterly disastrous day, with some degree of satisfaction.

26 May 2011

Unbelievably, this morning I received a call from the West Essex PCT asking me where I was?. Apparently I was meant to present myself in front of the Continuing Care committee, or at least been invited to do so. When I told the West Essex PCT representative that I had been told of this opportunity she said I could have sent someone to represent me. Again, I could tell her that this option was not offered to me. However, she pointed out that neither were mandatory and therefore they would go ahead on the paperwork only. I must say I am very disappointed that this matter seems to have been so badly handled and if I am turned down having. Not had the opportunity of being heard or sending a representative, I shall certainly make a fuss.

 

Despite that late morning call there was no for further call from the West Essex PCT which I might have expected had we been successful. I shall have to chase them up tomorrow. In the meantime Alice has been gathering together the bits and pieces that we will need to take with us to Cornwall when we leave tomorrow for my nieces wedding.

25 May 2011

Michael rang up from Sweden last evening to tell us that he had arrived safely. He had a bit of a panic at this end before he left as he could not find his car keys. However, he had obviously left them in the box when going through security at the airport, on the outward journey from Sweden and they were readily available to him when he arrived, otherwise it may have taken him an hour or two to get some duplicate keys from the local Subaru dealer.

I really think that my limited walking days are almost over. When I returned yesterday from the golf club even, with George, the wheelchair taxi driver’s assistance, and Alice on the other side they could not get me up onto my feet so we had to resort to the hoist. This morning I finally abandoned the leg exercises in bed as they were becoming extremely difficult and I felt were not doing any good. I did manage to walk dragged my feet, using my frame, into the study but I suspect it will not be too long before I am wheelchair bound with all that that implies.

My ‘tummy rubbing ‘ lady, Karen, came to do her stuff this morning. Including, very kindly massaging the neck muscles to relieve any tension. Whether it’s doing any good, heaven knows, however, it may be easier to judge when it is done conscientiously three times a day as she suggest.s but we cannot start this until our Continuing Care comes through and I can asked the nurses to do it. I certainly cannot expect Alice to add this to the list of the things she already has to do for me has to do for me at present. Karen also brought us a bottle of Swedish bitters, a teaspoon of which to be taken daily in water. An absolutely disgusting taste at it is meant to relieve flatulence and actors mild laxative. We will go through this (expensive) bottle and then decide whether it having any effect.

Otherwise a fairly normal Wednesday with’ Jane the sheep’ taking over for a couple of hours in the afternoon and I went out into the garden in my electric wheelchair for an hour or so in the mild sunshine to get some fresh air, I certainly enjoy the freedom of the electric chair but it’s a little bit hard on the buttocks after a few hours. Maybe I shall have for ask some special sort of cushion

At last I have received a reply from my local MP, The Rt.. Hon. Sir Alan Hazlehurst, re. my idea for a nationwide scheme of one-to-one mentoring for children from deprived families. (See my letters to the Deputy Speaker of the House Of Commons, Sir Alan Haselhurst and The Prime Minister, 11 February 2011 entry) Quite rightly, Sir Alan passed my letter to the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education and receives a long letter from Minister, Michael Gove. Sadly, he or his PA, totally missed the point.

Whilst agreeing with me that monitoring is a a powerful tool to help young people understand the world of work and the opportunities available to them, this minister referred me to the Education and Employers Task Force which the government recently announced as their Social Mobility Strategy. This Task Force,, amongst other things, is already developing Robert Heston’s, the BBC’s Business Editor’s Speaker for Schools programme, and Mr Gove suggests that I might consider becoming one of these speakers. As I said to Sir Alan, although this in itself may well be a good initiative, it completely misses the point of my idea and frankly I cannot see a great deal of sense in me putting my name forward as a speaker to the group of local school kids who are probably already reasonably well-educated and motivated. So I may have one final attempt, by contacting this Task Force, to see if I can get them interested in my idea but I will not hold my breath fce a successful outcome.

A quiet day after the excitement of the children’s recent visit is and ‘my lovely’s’ birthday celebrations. Incidentally, I forgot to mention that the three grandchildren, accompanied by their parents, I imagine from their campsite, gathered round a mobile phone and all sang happy birthday to granny on the day itself. All very touching I wonder what the grandchildren will now call granny, obviously no longer’ ‘granny donkey’ now that Mouse, the donkey, has departed this world.

At last I have managed to find out where our Continuing Care application has gone to. Not from the district nurses who I have I rang up consistently over the past two or three weeks, without response, but by going direct to the person at West Essex PCT who is processing the application. Apparently there were problems with the paperwork which was not completed as required. The lady responsible for my case is hoping that she will shortly be in possession of the last piece of paperwork and that the case can be considered towards the end of this week. The only problem from our point of view is that it is now a number of weeks since the assessment was carried out and there is no doubt that I have deteriorated substantially in the meantime. So if we get turned down we may have no choice but to appeal. I have asked West Essex PCT to send me a copy of the regulations showing what the criteria is for eligibility for Continuing Care which they have kindly agreed to do. In the meantime we struggle on using our own resources.

 

24 May 2011

 

Didn’t have a brilliant night. I am finding it more and more difficult to turn over in bed which is immensely frustrating in the middle of the night. This despite the satin over sheet, the Wendylett under sheet with the satin centre to which I have pinned a rubber mat in order to give more purchase to my feet. In addition we have put cage over the feet to hold the weight of the bed clothes.

 

The main problem is an in turning I trapping over sheet under my body and my arms and hands are just far too weak to move them. Heaven knows what I’m going to do when I can’t turn at all,. I think I will go crazy. The problem is, despite the sleeping tablets and diazepam I wake usually around midnight then obviously drop-off cat napping to say around 2.00 a.m. and this pattern continues until ‘my lovely’ comes in at 5 a.m. That works fine at present but for how much longer and I cannot possibly wake Alice in the middle of the night to turn me as she would become absolutely exhausted. This is something I must take up with my MND team and I see them in early June or alternatively, Dr Margaret Saunders, the extremely helpful palliative care consultant..

The good Dr Michael arrived back late afternoon yesterday from his trip to Cornwall which, by all accounts, had been extremely successful. He left early this morning, after shaving me and generally helping Alice, to return to Sweden

My great excitement today was my first trip in my electric wheelchair to the golf club. We are fortunate in having a local taxi service which specialises in wheelchair transport, located a few miles away in Saffron Waldon, it was absolutely marvellous. I had a very personable Polish driver, George, in a very modern purpose made vehicle with a hydraulic ram that raises the wheelchair which is then locked securely in position on the floor. The whole process turned out to be much more satisfactory than being hauled in and out of cars into mobile wheelchairs and then in and out of the golf buggy and so on. I really think this is the new way forward. Apart from the convenience of the whole business, the sheer pleasure in being able to drive around the golf course following my friends on foot was much more fun than being trapped in a buggy I was a little nervous at first particularly about the slopes but I soon got used to it and can’t wait to next Tuesday to repeat the process.

For some light relief here are some absolutely magnificent aerial photographs. This is a collection of photography produced by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Large scale photos cover several continents and are a result of a five year odyssey around the world by the photographer. click on link below

http://justpaste.it/3ky

 

25 May 2011

Michael rang up from Sweden last evening to tell us that he had arrived safely. He had a bit of a panic at this end before he left as he could not find his car keys. However, he had obviously left them in the box when going through security at the airport, on the outward journey from Sweden and they were readily available to him when he arrived, otherwise it may have taken him an hour or two to get some duplicate keys from the local Subaru dealer.

I really think that my limited walking days are almost over. When I returned yesterday from the golf club even, with George, the wheelchair taxi driver’s assistance, and Alice on the other side they could not get me up onto my feet so we had to resort to the hoist.

This morning I finally abandoned the leg exercises in bed as they were becoming extremely difficult and I felt were not doing any good. I did manage to walk dragged my feet, using my frame, into the study but I suspect it will not be too long before I am wheelchair bound with all that that implies.

My ‘tummy rubbing ‘ lady, Karen, came to do her stuff this morning. including, very kindly massaging the neck muscles to relieve any tension. Whether it’s doing any good, heaven knows, however, it may be easier to judge when it is done conscientiously three times a day as she suggest.s but we cannot start this until our Continuing Care comes through and I can asked the nurses to do it. I certainly cannot expect Alice to add this to the list of the things she already has to do for me has to do for me at present. Karen also brought us a bottle of Swedish bitters, a teaspoon of which to be taken daily in water. An absolutely disgusting taste at it is meant to relieve flatulence and actors mild laxative. We will go through this (expensive) bottle and then decide whether it having any effect.

Otherwise a fairly normal Wednesday with’ Jane the sheep’ taking over for a couple of hours in the afternoon and I went out into the garden in my electric wheelchair for an hour or so in the mild sunshine to get some fresh air, I certainly enjoy the freedom of the electric chair but it’s a little bit hard on the buttocks after a few hours. Maybe I shall have for ask some special sort of cushion.

For any of my readers who are thinking about buying property you might find this rather risque Australian video rather amusing ! If you are a feminist or a little foolish I suggest you skip it. lick on the URL link below

 

http://www.15queenannecourt.com.au/uncensored

 

 

 

 

24 May 2011

23 May 2011

 At last I have received a reply from my local MP, The Rt.. Hon. Sir Alan Haselhurst, re. my idea for a nationwide scheme of one-to-one mentoring for children from deprived families. (See my letters to the Deputy Speaker of the House Of Commons, Sir Alan Haselhurst and The Prime Minister, 11 February 2011 entry) Quite rightly, Sir Alan passed my letter to the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education and receives a long letter from Minister, Michael Gove. Sadly, he or his PA, totally missed the point.

Whilst agreeing with me that monitoring is a a powerful tool to help young people understand the world of work and the opportunities available to them, this minister referred me to the Education and Employers Task Force which the government recently announced as their Social Mobility Strategy. This Task Force,, amongst other things, is already developing Robert Heston’s, the BBC’s Business Editor’s Speaker for Schools programme, and Mr Gove suggests that I might consider becoming one of these speakers.

As I said to Sir Alan, although this in itself may well be a good initiative, it completely misses the point of my idea and frankly I cannot see a great deal of sense in me putting my name forward as a speaker to the group of local school kids who are probably already reasonably well-educated and motivated. So I may have one final attempt, by contacting this Task Force, to see if I can get them interested in my idea but I will not hold my breath fce a successful outcome.

A quiet day after the excitement of the children’s recent visit is and ‘my lovely’s’ birthday celebrations. Incidentally, I forgot to mention that the three grandchildren, accompanied by their parents, I imagine from their campsite, gathered round a mobile phone and all sang happy birthday to granny on the day itself. All very touching I wonder what the grandchildren will now call granny, obviously no longer’ ‘granny donkey’ now that Mouse, the donkey, has departed this world.

At last I have managed to find out where our Continuing Care application has gone to. Not from the district nurses who I have I rang up consistently over the past two or three weeks, without response, but by going direct to the person at West Essex PCT who is processing the application. Apparently there were problems with the paperwork which was not completed as required. The lady responsible for my case is hoping that she will shortly be in possession of the last piece of paperwork and that the case can be considered towards the end of this week. The only problem from our point of view is that it is now a number of weeks since the assessment was carried out and there is no doubt that I have deteriorated substantially in the meantime. So if we get turned down we may have no choice but to appeal. I have asked West Essex PCT to send me a copy of the regulations showing what the criteria is for eligibility for Continuing Care which they have kindly agreed to do. In the meantime we struggle on using our own resources.

 

 

22 May 2011

Whilst agreeing with me that monitoring is a a powerful tool to help young people understand the world of work and the opportunities available to them, this minister referred me to the Education and Employers Task Force which the government recently announced as their Social Mobility Strategy. This Task Force,, amongst other things, is already developing Robert Heston’s, the BBC’s Business Editor’s Speaker for Schools programme, and Mr Gove suggests that I might consider becoming one of these speakers.

 

As I said to Sir Alan, although this in itself may well be a good initiative, it completely misses the point of my idea and frankly I cannot see a great deal of sense in me putting my name forward as a speaker to the group of local school kids who are probably already reasonably well-educated and motivated. So I may have one final attempt, by contacting this Task Force, to see if I can get them interested in my idea but I will not hold my breath fce a successful outcome.

A quiet day after the excitement of the children’s recent visit is and’ ‘my lovely’s’ birthday celebrations. Incidentally, I forgot to mention that the three grandchildren, accompanied by their parents, I imagine from their campsite, gather round the mobile phone and all sang happy birthday to granny on the day itself. All very touching I wonder what the grandchildren will now call granny, obviously no longer’ ‘granny donkey’ now that Mouse, the donkey, has departed this world.

 

 
 

21 May 2011

‘ My lovely’s ‘birthday and also, ironically, according to one small religious sect in the USA, Judgement Day, Armageddon, the Apocalypse – or whatever you wish to call it -when simultaneousa giant earthquakes would destroy the world. . Fortunately, as I sit here writing this blog there doesn’t appear to be much evidence of this Armageddon! I’m glad to say that this is the second time this particular ‘prophet’ has made such a prediction and he was wrong to last time!!

Mick went off early this morning to stay a couple of days with John and Geraldine Barlow, the amusing pleasant couple, who live in Cornwall, who we met at the Anantara, Thailand, some two or three years ago. Unfortunately John and Geraldine are without the Internet and therefore have not been able to keep up with our progress but, no doubt, will get all the news from Mick. I shall be fascinated to learn how to get some of them I’m sure they are wonderful hosts.

Miles and Kimberly, recently returned from a little holiday in Paris, came down to lunch to join in their Alice’s birthday celebration which was deliberately low-key as she never likes to make a fuss about such things. However, a measure of her popularity were the 20 or so birthday cards she received, all but four or five coming from outside of the family. Of course she had a number of modest presents-mine was a Japanese print of the bird that she coveted-and Kimberly cleverly and generously provided eight very superior cup cakes, all of different flavours, as an alternative to a small birthday cake. The weather was almost perfect apart from the odd gusts of wind-one of which removed the umbrella from the picnic table shooting it up onto the flat roof of the breakfast room – Mary Poppinslike. From this you gather that we had lunch and tea outside in the garden, me in my electric wheelchair. All in all a lovely day, particularly seeing Miles and Kimberly so soon after Chloe’s visit

I’m pleased to learn, from one or two of my readers, that they agree with my rather strongly held views on the entries I made over the past two or three days.

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  THIS IS THE ONLY TIME WE WILL SEE AND LIVE THIS EVENT Calendar for July 2011 July   Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31               Money bags This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens once every 823 years. This is called money bags. So, forward this to your friends and money will arrive within 4 days. Based on Chinese Feng Shui. The one who does not forward…..will be without money. Kinda interesting – read on!!! This year we’re going to experience four unusual dates. 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 and that’s not all… Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born – now add the age you will be this year, The results will be 111 for everyone in whole world. This is the year of the Money!!! The proverb goes that if you send this to eight good friends money will appear in next four days as it is explained in Chinese FENGSHUI. Those who don’t continue the chain won’t receive…….. Its a mystery, but its worth a try. good luck.   Â

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20 May 2011

Started the day with a wheelchair shower administered very ably by Sally, from Ross Nursing. All worked very well and we only had to use the standing hoist once to move me from the wheelchair to sit on the bed to be dressed. The shower was.very welcome as we have been rather sparse on the showers until we find out about our Continuing Care as ‘my lovely’ can no longer manage on her own.

A bright fresh sunny day. Certainly one for the garden in my new toy.my electric wheelchair. Mick is still here, of course, and were joined at lunchtime by my darling daughter Chloe, who is going camping with the church group tomorrow and therefore cannot be here to celebrate her mother’s birthday. A flying visit as she has picked up Lara from school but a very welcome one nevertheless..#

We watched the King’s Speech film in the evening that all the fuss has be made about recently. We certainly enjoyed it but I’m not sure that we would have rated it quite as highly as the film world did. It rather brushed over traumatic event of the abdication and the family’s reactions to it, which must have had a greater impact on the new king the new then you would glean from watching this film.

19 May 2011

Late morning, Karen, the aromatherapist came and not only to rub my tummy but also gave me a neck massage, all of which was very pleasant and I hope is doing me some good. Once we get our Continuing Care I’m hoping that the nurses will be prepared at least to massage my stomach with the longer term view of reducing the amount of air in it.

Hot on the heels of Karen came the lady from Holy wheelchairs with some for ergonomic cushions for the mobile wheelchair. One of them, which fills with air, can only be set up once pressure patterns have been taken of my buttocks, so this was left for another day.Of course, the purpose of these special cushions is to avoid pressure sores if one is sitting for some extended period in the same seat stop listening

The final excitement for the day was the arrival of my good friend Michael, the’ the flying Dr’, from Australia.. Prior to his arrival I had been put into the electric chair and managed to drive it out into the open air and around the garden which was quite a joy after being trapped in my study chair all day.

Of course, we shared our usual bottle of champagne and I was able to enjoy a small cigar in the fresh air. Simple pleasures but so important in order to introduce variety into the life of the disabled.

The second gripe, I mentioned yesterday, concerns the work ethic. Leaving aside the thousands of people who are fraudulently claiming disability benefit who are perfectly capable of doing some sort of job, even if it is sedentary, which I’m glad to say the government is now tackling, my main concern is with the youth of today. A vast proportion of young people working in the catering and hotel business are from Eastern Europe. They are fully prepared to give up the comfort of their home life in familiar surroundings and work for, presumably the minimum wage, yet we have hundreds of thousands of young people bellyaching about not being able to get work and being forced to receive social benefits. Some of them accepting that they may never work. I really do not understand this attitude. Surely even working in the fields where farmers complain they cannot get casual workers from this country would be better than sitting at home doing nothing. Certainly there are jobs out there to be done this should not be be below the pride of a young person today, even those with a degree, as a backstop. I certainly remember doing backbreaking potato picking as a young man to earn a few pounds to enable me to go on holiday. I also worked in Butlins as a slave doing this and that. The honest truth is that our young are paid too much not to work, many of them receiving jobseekers allowance having no intention of taking a job even if it’s offered. Having said that, of course I accept that there are many more thousands of young people desperately looking for a job who would take something less than they had hoped for if it was available.

Returning to yesterday’s theme why are politicians not honest enough to state this obvious truth. Why? Because they’re all frightened of losing votes. What happens to the politician who is honest with the voters? He is usually sacked and disappears into obscurity. How could we have come to this sorry state?

I have no doubt that this will bring forth a howl of protest from some of my readers to whom I say, with all sincerity, you to are entitled to your opinion.

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 18 May 2011

I have assiduously avoided mentioning anything vaguely political or issues dealing with colour, race, class or creed, for the obvious reason that I do not wish to give offence to any of my readers who come from all corners of the earth. However there are two issues about which I feel quite strongly and that I shall mention, confident that the majority of my readers will be of the same mind.

The first concerns the freedom for our politicians to make honest statements. This is prompted by an attack, in the press, on the Minister of Justice, yesterday, Kenneth Clarke. As a result of the government bringing new mandatory sentences for rape the maximum sentence for the most serious cases remains Life Imprisonment, but, but for the general run of cases, if I put it that way, the mandatory sentence will be five years, with the caveat that the if the rapist pleads guilty and thud avoids the pain and suffering of the victim being subjected to a court case, the sentence can be halved to 2 ½. Years. All prisoners, as I understand it, normally become eligible for parole halfway through their sentence, this means of a rapist could be considered for early release after 2 1/2 years, which again can be reduced by 50% from the group behaviour, meaning that a rapist could be let out within 15 months. These proposals have caused the poor old Minister of Justice to be under severe attack for saying that some rapes are more serious than others. He attempted to put this right at the later interview by saying that all rapes were serious. However my point being that he merely made a perfectly honest statement for which he is being pilloried.

Clearly there is a wide difference between say a young couple who have been courting for some time who go out for the evening and both get a little tiddly and, on returning home, the male is feeling a little frisky and the female rejected his advances to a point where she says no but he is not prepared to accept and goes ahead anyway. This is classified as rape. Compare that with the case of a young woman walking home at night, through the park, pounced on by a hooded attacker with a knife who savagely attacks and rapes her in the most obscene manner leaving her very severely traumatised, bleeding and damaged after the event. Surely these two is should be dealt with in a different way and by the Minister of Justice saying that there are grades of rape he was merely stating the truth. Why is it then that our politicians cannot be more honest and state the obvious without arousing outrage in a few, and giving their political opponents the opportunity to howl for his resignation.

I would be interested to hear from my readers as to how many of them agree or disagree with me. I will deal with my second gripe tomorrow.