April: Our first full month in lock-down courtesy of Covid-19. Like everyone, we are missing seeing friends and family, and learning how to make video calls using Zoom. My MND puts me firmly in the high risk category for the coronavirus but, on the plus side, I already have my own home ventilator! To protect me, Doreen is also avoiding going out, even for food. Fortunately, we have had several people offering to shop for us including, to my surprise, Dean the Builder (remember last year’s saga of The Patio?). People are so kind.
The 28th was Doreen’s birthday. I can’t say which one, but it did end with a ‘0’. John Lewis provided presents and a card, mail order. Our daughter, Fiona, dropped off a cake, candles, and more presents. Son-in-law, Tudor, delivered 2 fresh fillet steaks. We held a Zoom virtual birthday party with our ‘children’ and grandchildren, opening presents and eating cake, and later we enjoyed the steaks washed down by a 12 year-old Chateauneuf du Pape. A good day, but exhausting.
Physically, I’m finding it harder to swing my legs up onto the bed, and I’ve noticed my wrists getting ‘floppier’ of late which means I have to be very careful handling a teapot or kettle. When the pubs eventually re-open, I might have to drink halves, or suffer the indignity of using a straw!
Our new home hoist was delivered at the end of March, and Leslie the NHS OT came round a few days later to show us how to operate it. We haven’t yet used it ‘in anger’ as I can still get out of the wheelchair without it, although the frequency with which I need a boost from Doreen has increased from ‘occasionally’ to ‘regularly’ in quite a short period of time. We decided, nevertheless, that we should practice using the hoist so we’ll be confident in its operation when the need arises.
A week after Leslie’s demo, we had our first trial. Initially, it went fine, lifting me to a standing position on the hoist’s platform. The next move, not part of the original demo, was to back up the hoist, move it to the electric wheelchair, and lower me in. As Doreen moved back, the coiled, sprung power cable became increasingly stretched. Doreen, oblivious to the situation, kept going until, having reached its limit, the cable pulled out of the machine, and recoiled across the hall. Doreen retrieved the cable and looked bewilderedly at it, awaiting a blinding flash of inspiration to show her where on the machine to plug it back in. She is a wonderful woman, with many talents, but an affinity with mechanical devices is definitely not one of them!! Eventually, though, with a few irritated suggestions from me, she managed to reconnect the cable and all went well from there.
A week later, we tried again, this time using an extension lead; but that left the power cable lying slack on the floor. This time, Doreen managed to run over it, trapping it, and once again pulling the power cable out of the machine. It took less time to re-plug it this time but the hoist then refused to respond to the ‘lower’ button. Doreen again looked perplexed; I was getting tired and uncomfortable. Increasingly bad-tempered suggestions from me such as, “Are you sure you’ve plugged it into the right place?” and, “Have you plugged it in the right way round?” didn’t get us anywhere. Still the machine refused to respond. I then had one of those ‘light bulb’ moments. “Have you put the brakes on the wheels?” “No.” I’d forgotten that although you can lift someone without the brakes on, they must be applied before lowering them, and a safety interlock prevents operation. As the technical guru of our partnership, I should have remembered this instead of getting grumpy and bad tempered. Sorry, Doreen!!!