5 July 2010

It was one of those Irish Tuesdays today being Monday, when the geriatric golf day was moved by a day to make way for a private function tomorrow. As my good friend Peter Murphy kindly drove me, with a name like that, I hope he will forgive the politically incorrect reference to the Irish.

This was my first visit, to the Tuesday geriatric club, since the beginning of May, a week or so before I broke my leg and it was great to be back and to see many of the old gang again, although for some odd reason there were fewer than usual, despite the beautiful weather.. I suspect many will turn up tomorrow having not to checked their diaries!. I rode around with Griggsy, in fact he actually played and I drove him in his buggy, despite my hands and arms not functioning as freely as I would have liked,  I managed, after a fashion.

Once I was at a club I used my gutter frame, which was okay  when I was inside but did not function at all  well on the gravel drive outside. However, I am having it adapted with 6 inch rubber wheels to replace the small hard plastic ones, which should make it usable both indoors and out.

4 July 2010

I received details today, by e-mail, of the outcome of The Great London Swim Event. Congratulations to all three boys who finished in very creditable times, particularly young Tom, who covered the distance in 33 minutes  16 seconds but only just over a minute or so faster than Peter. Even more impressive was that Duncan Goodhew, the 100 m gold medallist who was only 4 ½. minutes faster. A very creditable performance, all round.. Having said that, that in no way denigrates from Clive’s splendid performance in coming 37^th. in his Age Group, having  never done anything like this ever before, which puts him in a class of his own. Thank you so much, boys.

We must not lose sight of the fact that all this training and energy was for the purpose of raising money for the MND Association and the Heaton-Ellis Trust, which was specifically setup up as a charity to research into a cure for MND. Just what the final total will be, for each appeal, I am not sure, at this stage, as there is clearly money to come  from people who have made pledges, but I know that it exceeds £5000 for the main appeal and even more for the Heaton- Ellis Trust, due to a single generous donation of £7500. I will report on the final totals in due course .  .

This afternoon we watched Nadal win another impressive Wimbledon final. This time against the 6’5” Tomas Berdych, who, to his credit put up a creditable performance but never really looked like winning.

3 July 2010

The day of the Great London Swim Event has arrived. Today Peter Beuchel, Clive Freedman and young Tom Osbourne are all valiantly going to swim a mile each, in the Royal Docks, on the Isle of Dogs, in their fundraising event, in aid of the MND Association –-Three Miles for Mark. Sadly, I shall not be there as I had bought tickets for the Lord’s before the boys offered to do the swim. In any event, they are all swimming at different times of the day and it would be virtually impossible for me to watch all three,  unless I was prepared to spend anything up to 12 hours by the waterside. I can do no more, therefore, than wish them all good luck.

A lovely day at Lord’s for the final match between England and Australia in the five match 50 overs, series. We lost, but the result was not significant as we had already won the first three encounters of the series.

It was a perfect summer’s day with a fully sold out Lord’s looking its finest. Barry picked me up at 8.30 and we were at the ground just before 10.00. Paul met us at Gate 6. and with a giant bear hug transferred effortlessly me from car to wheelchair, from thence I was pushed across the grass, passed the crowd in the Warner Stand to the place specially reserved for wheelchair. Patients… My guests were Monti and Karyl Nairn and they brought with them their dear little 10-month-old Baxter, who I must say is a very beautiful baby.

The day passed in the time honoured tradition with the first bottle of champagne  opened at 11.00 and then flowed liberally throughout the day, interspersed with various offerings of food. As always the days sped by, and before I knew it I was back in Barry’s car, homeward bound, weary but having a great day. The next  personal test will come later this month when I had booked to spend four days consecutive Lord’s for the England versus Pakistan test match. This will be a real endurance test even fully fit I used to find three days was about as much as I could cope with.

2 July 2010

The good Dr Long left for Sweden, this morning,  for the marriage of his daughter, Penny, in a 10 days time. Before he left I discussed with him the letter that had come from Papworth Hospital regarding my recent visit there. Basically, the difference between this visit and the previous one was  that my Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV) had dropped to 1.7 with a vital capacity of 2.5 litres (74% predicted). This was a considerable drop from the last visit when  my vital capacity was 3.3 litres. Although the doctor said that there was no urgent need for ventilatory support I am to be reassessed in two months time rather than three as before.

With the ramps having been completed I was able to get into my office for the first time since I broke my leg and spend some time with my secretary sorting out the backlog of paperwork. I actually managed extremely well, waling the ramp, using my gutter frame, with ‘my lovely’ hovering nervously behind me on the first attempt but as we saw this to be  entirely safe this is probably the way I will access the office, at least for the time being, although I have to say that the Occupational Therapists do not recommend the use of wheeled frames on ramps.

29 June 2010

Readers will recall me mentioning my gutter frame, which is no more or less than an ordinary Zimmer frame with two gutter supports bolted to the top onto which one can rest one’s forearms. The only other difference between this and most similar frames is that it has two hard plastic wheels on the front two legs. I find this extremely easy to use and can get about, at some speed, inside the house, and indeed have tried outside from time to time but the wheels are really not suitable for anything other than the smoothest of surfaces. This being so I trawled the Internet last week for something similar, with larger rubber wheels. which I could use outside whilst my legs are still working and before I become confined to a wheelchair. I discovered one such ‘wheeled walker’ which is cleverly designed so that brakes could be applied, to the back wheels, by exerting pressure on one’s elbows. In addition, the whole thing folds in half which would make it much easier to store in the boot of a car or the hold of an aircraft. I was so excited at the discovery that I bought one, at around £200.

This new walker arrived last Friday and I could not wait to try it out. Having assembled it, I tried it out on to the brick paving in front of the house. I went no more than 5 yards before it started to topple over and I realise that it’s big mistake was only having three wheels. To my mind, unfortunately, this made this particular walker unfit for purpose, as, due to its specific design the walker has to rely on leaning heavily on the arm rests which makes the likelihood of toppling it, more likely, one way or the other, if the wheels hit the slightest obstacle. I abandoned it immediately and telephoned the suppliers to collect it, pointing out its deficiencies. Having said that, I believe that if they redesigned it is a four wheeler it would still be possible for it to incorporate the braking device and still fold in half for ease of transport. I put this to the manufacturers, who hopefully will be pursuing this idea.

In the meantime I have decided that I can solve my problem by replacing the small hard plastic wheels on the front of my Zimmer frame with external rubber one’s — not recommended by the occupational therapists. After making half a dozen different telephone calls I did manage to find a company who could provide me with a pair of wheels with an axle which I hope I will be able to put through the same hole as the axle on the existing wheels of the Zimmer frame, or, if not, a slightly enlarged one. Of course, I will then have to be careful not to use this for going down steep slopes or ramps, but providing I am sensible and broadly stick to flat ground, I believe this could solve my problem.

28 June 2010

The beginning of a new week and  a good time to take stock. It is  around 10 days since I had the cast off my leg and the pain decreases daily although the leg and ankle are still slightly swollen. Although I find I can manage to walk a few steps without support my legs feel very weak and I’m not at all confident that I can get any distance without having the comfort of the gutter frame. Whether I will be able to dispense with it entirely or not is questionable. At least, for the time being, I am avoiding being in a wheelchair except for the odd occasion when it is the most sensible form of transport.

The MND Association, once more, have generously come to my  aid and agreed to pay for the ramps into my office which should strictly be only accessed by wheelchair. These will be installed tomorrow after which I can hopefully, for the first time since I broke my leg, return to my beloved office having made do these past several weeks working in my study in the house. With the MND Association having been so generous in a number of directions I’m very pleased to be able to report that the donations for The Great London Swim Event are slowly coming in  and will ultimately amount to run a handsome contribution to the Association, fortunately far in excess of what they have kindly given to me. Having mentioned this fundraising event, the details of which regular readers will be aware, are set out at the beginning of my blog, I urge any of you who are not done so to make a modest donation to this very worthy cause. As they say every little help.

Incidentally, I was informed today, by a lady at MND Connect, that I had been misinformed about my ultimate demise through MND, which I had documented earlier on this blog. I would not either drown in my own fluid or suffocate from lack of breath but more likely would just slip away quietly. She did admit, however. that all (or most?) sufferers will ultimately have a breathing problem which will involve some form of intervention, I do wish this dear lady had taken advantage of the opportunity to comment on the entry,at the time,  by clicking where indicated at the end of each entry, and thus put the record straight, as it may have alarmed other sufferers.

The good Dr Long arrived from Australia today for a brief visit before flying on to Sweden. He was to have left early tomorrow morning, making it an extremely brief visit but he then decided to change his flight to Thursday morning, as much as anything to get a number of his medical reports dictated in peace and quiet, instead of the chaos which he is likely to meet in Sweden, with his family arriving for the wedding of his daughter Penny.

We celebrated his arrival in what now has become a tradition, with a bottle of champagne enjoyed in the cooling of the afternoon sun before sitting down to a delicious supper at the picnic table prepared by ‘my lovely’ -why is it that food tastes so much better in the open air?

27 June 2010

The hottest day of the year today with the temperatures soaring into the low 30’s. Perfect for the summer lunch party in the garden, preluded by generous tumblers of Pimm’s, which is precisely what we had arranged, risking all on the changeable English weather. (Pimms, in my book, should only be garnished with a  fresh mint and possibly a little cucumber,  not the fruit salad which the current advertisements seem to be encouraging people to add. Did you know that there were originally — or may still be, for all I know — six different varieties of Pimms,  each based on a different spirit; Gin; Vodka; Brandy; Whisky and Rum. I cannot for the life of me remember the sixth. We still have two at the golf club, gin and vodka based. But I ramble on.)

Michael and Bridget Hickey, more ghosts from the past from the Aden days, were the principal  guests at lunch today. They contacted us some weeks ago, having seen the article, about my blog, in The Daily Telegraph and we were happy to invite them to lunch having not seen or heard sight nor sound of them for the best part of 50 years. Fortunately, they were, as we remembered a very jolly couple and we spent the best part of two or three hours mulling over old times and amazing ourselves about how many people we knew in common. What you might call a typical geriatric session. The fifth member of the lunch party was Alison Lambi, whose dear husband Ian dying very recently but who were with us in Aden about the same time as the Hickey’s. Ian was in the Army and we frequently played squash together.

The perfect finish to a perfect day. A telephone call to inform ‘ my lovely’ that she had, for the second year running, won a second prize in the Clavering Rose Show, organised by the Clavering Horticultural Society. Her prize was in the  ‘five blooms in a vase’ category, and she and the gardener, Peter  are understandably tickled pink (so were the roses, as it happened!).

Can I irreverently  add another element of perfection to this day, thank heavens, the end of the World Cup football fever. England are out of the event, completely stuffed by Germany, 4-1 (or morally 4-2, if you count the clear goal that was disallowed as having not crossed the line when it was in by a good two feet ) or as one commentator put it, Germany went through England  like a bullet going through a cream puff. To balance that, on the cricket front, England pulled off yet another win against the Aussies in the third of the one-day series. A little more nail-biting than the previous two, but a win nevertheless.

26 June 2010

I hate to spoil what promises to be a beautiful weekend, when we are in the middle of what is, as yet, ‘an uninterrupted by rain’ dry Wimbledon, a very rare mud-less Glastonbury  Festival and the prospect of English wins against Australia in cricket and Germany in football in the World Cup tomorrow. to have a whinge, but I feel justified in at making the point.

Over a month ago, when I left Addenbrooke’s Hospital, I went to some trouble to write a glowing report about my stay, being cognisant that most people are critical about the NHS I thought I would try to say something on the other side of the scales. I sent copies to the chief executive of the hospital Garath Goodier; the chairman of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation trust, Dr Mary Archer; the chairman of the PCT (Primary Care Trust), Dr Maureen Donnelly and the trade union representative. Jonathan Yule. Now, you would think that all of them would have been at least been sufficiently pleased to have received such an accolade to have taken the trouble, at least, to acknowledge receipt and mumble a few words about how kind of me it was to write etc. However, the only person to have written back  is Jonathan and hopefully he shared the e-mail with the rest of the staff in ward F4, towards whom the accolade was directed Having said that I must admit that Dr Archer, at least, got her secretary  to acknowledge  my letter but promised a response. Now I know that 500,000 letters a year (or is it a week?) go astray through the post and that not all e-mails ever get through, thousands of them still floating about in the ether, so, in advance, if any of these miscreants have indeed already have sent an effusive response that has got lost, please accept my humble apologies (and send me a further copy).

24 June 2010

I spent the morning quite happily working on my laptop in our dear little Rose cottage at the Olde house. Then to LAF to spend a little time with Granny before brother-in-law, who really is not terribly well, characteristically unselfish and generous, insisted on taking to us all out to lunch at a delightful seafood restaurant, Nathan Outlaw -attached to the  St. Enodoc hotel – in Rock. What was so delightful about this restaurant was not only the delicious food but the fact that we were able to sit out on the terrace and overlook the magnificent view included the estuary. This time, sans Granny, we were able to squash into Tor’s car. and I do mean squash. My poor 71-year-old ‘lovely’, like a small child, was stuffed into the boot and left grappling with the walking frames, as we swung violently around sharp bends on the narrow road back to LAF  all the way home after lunch. Thank heavens the girls are made of the same stern stuff as their mother.

All too soon Barry and Denise arrived to transport us home, which they did with great dispatch, stopping, only briefly at a service station to pick up a sandwich. I spent the entire journey selfishly glued to the car’s loudspeaker listening to England triumph  once more over the second of the one-day cricket series against Australia.

A most enjoyable sojourn. Beautifully organised, to the nth degree by,’my lovely’, and indeed very generously paid for by her. She went to infinite trouble to make it easy and comfortable for me for which I am eternally grateful. What did I do to deserve such a wonderful partner?