October began with the delivery of my new electric wheelchair. Trials around the house were soon followed by my maiden outside voyage to the dentist, half a mile distant, and a few days later by my first trip to the pub for lunch. It certainly makes local excursions much easier for Doreen. The new chair is far too heavy to lift into the car so longer journeys still mean using the manual wheel-chair, unless we acquire a specially adapted WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle).
Also this month, courtesy of the British Red Cross, I have taken delivery of a motorised reclining armchair. Its main function, though, is to lift me to a near standing position when I want to get up. I also have a new electric mattress elevator which fits under the mattress and lifts me up to a sitting position in bed. An earlier, pneumatic version had a small bedside compressor which inflated an air bag, tilting the frame upward and forward. The compressor was quite noisy but worse was the slow leak somewhere on the air bag. While sitting in bed reading, it gradually deflated, needing a periodic boost from the compressor to return to the upright position!
The Rugby World Cup has featured strongly in my entertainment this month. The outcome of the group stages is usually predictable but it’s good, sometimes, to see minor nations unexpectedly reaching the knockout stage. Well done Japan – but did it have to be at the expense of my beloved Scotland?!! Well played England, reaching the final.
This month sees another milestone. It is now two years since I last played golf. I do miss the game. Despite no longer playing, I still like to keep in touch with what’s happening at Haywards Heath Golf Club, having recently regained access to the members’ area of the website.
Fortunately, physically, there isn’t much new to report. Further deterioration of my hands is the most obvious (and distressing) change. I still have one straight finger I can type with, but both thumbs are getting weaker. After a night in the clenched position, straightening my fingers when I first get up can be a little painful. Actions such as cutting up food remain possible, but are becoming more difficult.
One down side of having to be helped to dress is that Doreen now has full control of my wardrobe. I have/had a favourite checked lumberjack shirt which she hates. For years I have resisted calls to dispose of it on the grounds that it was my fishing shirt; and it’s not that old (I remember buying it in 1997!). Sadly, with fishing now a thing of the past, the treasured shirt was no longer defendable and has gone (sob!). Sometimes I think Doreen just doesn’t understand sentimental attachment.
One of my physical frailties not resulting from MND is hearing loss, especially in the higher frequencies, making women’s voices particularly hard to hear. I had a voice message recently from a young woman saying, “…this is *******. We need to make an appointment for you to have a ******…………” On first listening, I was sure she’d said it was the ‘beauty parlour’ calling, but for what I just couldn’t make out. After several repeats, it still sounded like ‘beauty parlour’. Now, apart from being a long lost cause in the beauty stakes, the only association I’ve ever had with a beauty parlour was the aromatherapy massage I had as a gift from my daughter (see Living with MND 5). But that was in July last year and I’d heard nothing from them since. Eventually, I asked Doreen to listen to the message. It turned out it was ‘the GP’s surgery’ wanting me to make an appointment for ‘an ECG’. ‘GP’s surgery’ sounds nothing like ‘beauty parlour’!! Perhaps it was just wishful thinking.