November seems to have flown by this year. Certainly World news has kept me enthralled, especially the continuing events in Gaza, and the war in the Ukraine, but also the revelations coming from the Covid inquiry, not to mention the circus surrounding Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York. The approach of Christmas is also adding to my thoughts and actions. And then, of course, there is sport! In the Cricket World Cup, England’s men, as I predicted, didn’t reach the knockout stage, but they were saved from complete ignominy by winning their last group-stage game. They are now in the West Indies for a series of one-day and T20 games so something more positive to look forward to (I hope).
Former Rugby League star, Kevin Sinfield, is back in the news with his latest fund-raising challenge for MND. Starting on 1st December, he aims to complete 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 different cities (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-67348320 ). Nottingham isn’t one of the 7 cities but he will be in Brighton on Wednesday 6th December. After each marathon, Kevin will run an extra mile with invited members of the MND Community. What an amazing man!
This month’s good news is that Wheelchair Services turned up, as promised, and did a thorough job, hoisting me into the ‘new’ wheelchair so they could properly assess my head-support needs. They have to acquire/make some parts and are due to return to fit them on 8th December. Fingers crossed (or they would be if I still could!).
Not so good news is that I am still waiting for my new compression stockings. Following instructions from the District Nurse, we left it a week before enquiring at the pharmacy, receiving the dismissive response that the order would still be with the manufacturer. So we waited another 2 weeks and asked again. Still not there – the pharmacist is going to chase them.
Doreen’s progressive dementia, with her frequent memory lapses and occasional odd behaviour, is not something to laugh at, but one event this month did make her and us all chuckle. She decided one evening that there was nothing of interest on TV (she only watches BBC1 these days). So, probably around 8.30pm, she proceeded to go to bed early and read, as she often does now, leaving me to my usual timetable. My night-shift carer arrived at 10pm, overlapping with the evening carer to get me undressed, toileted, and into bed. That had all just finished when, at 10.45pm, Doreen suddenly appeared at my bedroom door, fully dressed.
“Oh!” I said, surprised, “I thought you’d gone to bed?”
“I did!” she replied, equally surprised.
It turned out that she’d been to sleep, woken up and seen the time, but thought it was morning and she’d slept in!
Last month I wrote about the frustration of itching, but being unable to move my arms to scratch. My scalp and beard were the main culprits plus a few other ‘itchy hotspots’. My GP had prescribed antihistamine tablets and honey-cream, which seemed to be working. My scalp/beard are much better but the hotspots have increased in both number and size so that they are beginning to join up! One of the hotspots became particularly inflamed, prompting a change of cream. The change did work but, until then, that area was really itchy. My night-shift carers are well used to being asked to scratch my head/beard or perhaps an armpit, and sometimes even to stick a finger in my ear and give it a wiggle, but being asked to scratch my groin is significantly more ‘up close and personal’!