Quite an eventful Day today.

GOM feeling down for obvious reasons, he had declined breakfast because there was no one to feed him, so to start, I had to go on a hunt for a bowl of muesli.

Then I had an argument with a nurse because the doctor had decided to take out catheter (no problem with that) only the nurse couldn't tell me if was to be replaced. I had to insist that if it wasn't there would be other consequences, so she got the agreement that a new one would be put in.

Then he had to go for an Ultrasound scan of his kidneys, chest and bladder. Then finally he saw the 'in house' physio who agreed that for 'continuity of care', if it was confirmed that he needed more rehab, they would try to get him back to the hospital he was discharged from last Tuesday.

Oh and because initially his bed was a third bed squashed in between 2 beds, as soon as another bay was vacated I asked for him to be moved because, with his wheelchair, he needed more space.

GOM finally came home on 24th April, athough he very nearly didn't make it when he couldn't transfer to the car. Had to go and get the ot's to help him get in. Transfer at home was easier but not without its problems.

Care assessment team started coming in from 25th to give him a shower. On the first day he had to stay in bed until they arrived (quite early - 8.30), but since then I've been able to get him up.

They've decided that he needs two care assistants for the moment, but this also means that he will be an early appointment. We've also told them that we would like the early appointments to continue as he needs to have his physio sessions around 10-11 am so this seems to work on all fronts as they can have him ready in time.

Wednesday and Thursday he was ok with his morning transfers, but this morning he felt a bit sick so it was a bit of a race to get him up before he was sick but we made it and he was up before the care assistants arrived just after 8.30. Yesterday he was up and eating his breakfast when the girls arrived around 9.00.

He's managed most of his afternoon tranfers so far, but the evening one last night was a bit of problem and he had to spend the evening in his wheelchair, which also made the transfer to bed a bit more difficult as the wheelchair seat is lower, but we're managing after a fashion.

There was a bit of a cock up with the referral to the district nurse and it went to the one who covers a different part of the area, but I had the contact number for the correct one from previous visits so was able to contact them to arrange for a new supply of the night drainage bags. Need to contact our local pharmacy later to see if they're in.

Got to hospital on Tuesday to find that gom has started being sick. Couldn't keep any food down and for a while no water either.

Thought initally it could be because they'd tried taking him off the anti biotics. They re-instated them on Wednesday night and I'd hoped to see an improvement when I went the Thursday.......

Only I didn't make it - early hours of Thursday morning I started being sick, then the diarhea started. Could this have been what gom had ?

Later in the morning I managed to take some dried bread, and then about lunch time I tried a banana but that promptly came back :(.

Later managed some baked apple and then for supper I had some mashed potato, both of which stayed down. Then this morning I managed some cereal and coffee so things seem to be back to normal but still got a bit of a 'fuzzy head' so haven't been to the hospital today either.

Gom's sister was going anyway so just stayed at home to get better for tomorrow and thereafter.

Boy what a couple of weeks we've just had.

That last Monday (12th) night was a really bad night and on Tuesday (13th) had to call out the gp who subsequently had GOM admitted to the medical assessment unit at our local hospital.

GOM had become quite dehydrated in the night and gradually became unable to take any water (fluids) orally.

Arrived MAU by about 2pm and the after he'd had all the examinations they finally got him onto iv saline and eventually a catheter. Moved him to a side room and I left about 11pm to come home

Wednesday got up there around 10am and there started a nightmare day - some 'prat' of a doctor decided to stop the iv saline because he thought gom was taking enough fluids orally but even an amatuer could see his urine was the wrong colour. Very worried when I left him about 8pm and had another bad night.

Got up there a bit later Thursday (10.30am) and saw that he'd been put back on iv saline some one had obviously seen some sense in the night. Different doctor (more senior?) and the change in his condition was noticable throught the day. hey even decided to get him out into the chair whcih wasn't a great success as he kept slipping out but.... He also still needed to be fed and helped with drinks but he was so obviously getting better. Again left about 8pm but had better night

Friday he was ready for them to move him to a rehab hospital where he's been ever since. Still on catheter, but he's so much better. He's regained most of the use of his hands, but he's still fairly weak from the waist down. He has some movement in his left foot but nothing in the right and needs more that one person to help him transfer. He washes himslef now and can use a razor safely but they have to wash his back and 'nether' regions.

He's had an xray of his neck and scan of his head just to make sure that it is just the ms and there aren't any other underlying causes. Just got to wait for the physical rehab to start - usual story of understaffing.

Been trying to keep my visiting to a minimum but still going every day, need to cut down as they are taking care of him unlike at the mau where I had to do all the non medical care.

Need to give my back a rest from those stupid plastic stackable chairs

GOM had a bad night last night - following on from a bit of dodgy day on Sunday.

During Sunday he went down in the bathroom again, but got him onto a mat and dragged it (and him) into the bedroom where eventually we got him onto the bed.

This however had the effect that he was weaker during the night and rather that get up to use the commode he pee'd into his pad/pants, but instead of waking me when he'd finished to change everything he went back to sleep, consequently I think he may have got some sort of infection - he said he felt a bit queezy and had a temperature.

Anyway I changed him, gave him a bed bath and a bit later than normal got him up and everything seemed ok, he had breakfast - cereal coffee banana and actimel, and pottered around on the computer.

The carpet fitter arrived to do the lounge and then the nrs man came to sort out hand rails. When csw arrived, I took my time out after explaining that gom had been a bit poorly.

About half an hour after csw left, he went for a pee but then felt the need for the other but in trying to turn round he went down, this time I wasn't taking any chances. Called the personal alarm people again and they got the paramedics.

They checked him over and felt he was ok. He had begun to shiver (from shock?) in the bathroom, but after they got him into his chair they checked his bp etc and everything seemed to be ok so off they went.

Social care team were here at the time too as they had an apppintment to assess him for a lifting device, so they were here for a while after medics left and gom started to get a bit drowsy so we deferred assessment.

Eventually gom was sick and then went to bed where I made him stay. Making use of the urinal bottle that we bought ages ago - I won't let him get up incase he ends up on floor again. Anyway I'd better get off to bed as I'm likely to have a disturbed night. :(

New year started with the 'wrecking crew' coming back on 8th and except for the weekends and one other day they've been with us ever since.

Bathroom took longer than planned (11 instead of 8 days), but it's worth it. Just waiting for the flooring guy to come and lay vinyl.

They've been working on lounge now for 5 days. scheduled to take 10 so we seem to be on target. Some of the changes didn't work out though - they couldn't get the coving off to change it - it had been stuck to plaster which had been moulded around the coving.

Fireplace and grate has been removed and hi fi cabinet has been built to go in the new cavity. Preparation should be finished by this weekend so they should start the painting the walls next week.

Unfortunately on the personal front, things not too good.

David had a bad transfer from the loo on monday night ending up on the floor. From where we couldn't get him up and he somehow managed to almost rip off his small toe, also fractured it. We're just playing a waiting game to see of he will lose the toe or if it will heal by itself. The tear couldn't be stitched, only dressed.

Under the fracture clinic at mo, but they want to wait another week before they do anything with the dressing. Not allowed to get the foot wet so need to sort out showers. Typical, just get the new shower sorted and David can't use it ;O

WOW.... Two whole months since I last got round to posting on here.

Things on the decorating front haven't exactly been going to plan, however I did get the storage unit emptied at the beginning of October. I also treated myself to a new full sized bicycle. Have kept my little foldaway though... just in case :O.

One of our neighbours moved away down to dorset the first week of october, but we haven't actually got to speak yet to the new family that moved in. She is one of the daughters of another neighbour, so I'm not sure if I got to speak to her when we met her parents.

We got the paving at the back finished and had the new gate etc fitted, but our neighbour has decided that he doesn't like what we've done to the bank outside the gate. When we moved, in March, it was all overgrown, so we tidied it up - he'd previously put decorative blocks along the edge and had put some plants into it. We'd dug it over and replanted, which he seemed pleased with, but certainly made no negative comments about it, but it now turns out that until his daughter moved he hadn't been able to use their garage as the daughter had been using it for storage, however once it was usable again they couldn't turn it their garage without clipping the blocks so asked me to alter the bank and path to give them sufficient turning. I'd had plans to change the path anyway once the inside was finished to make the path wider for GOM's wheelchair, so I didn't forsee any problems, he didn';t undestand that it was a'work in progress' and even when I did make a start, I didn't get as much done as I wanted as my old back problems came back and have since prevented me doing any more digging. I need to find someone to finish it off for me as I still have a quite a few hedging plants to go in too but haven't got them in. If I don't do it soon I'll lose them to the frost.

The original plan was to start the internal decorating at the beginning of October, but because the fine weather held, the contractor wanted to stick with the external work and get it finished. This put the internal work back so we had to reschedule and at the beginning of November started work on the kitchen instead of the some of the other rooms. This turned out to be more involved that originally planned as certain things came to light as it progressed, so we ended up with new base units and a new sink etc, still glad it was done unfortunately this meant the job over ran by 2 days and our contractor had to leave us to go off and do a 'small' job that was only supposed to take one day however this stretched to two days and then he went down with a bad dose of flu, which went on for TWO WEEKS. Finally we got him back this week, but it means that only half the rooms that I wanted looking presentable for Christmas (and GOM's birthday) will have been finished and the bathroom that was scheduled to start on Monday (4th) won't get underway until 8th/9th, and it's touch and go whether it will be straight by the break. We've been promised that the suite will be in even if the tiling isn't finished.

We had the new flooring scheduled for last week too which meant that only part of it could be done - the vinyl has been laid in the kitchen and hall but the carpet for the office/dining room had to be rescheduled and should be done on Monday

GOM had his ultra sound scan at the end of august. He needed to go with a full blader so he had to drink 2 pints just before we left. Appointment was 1.45pm but they didn't come out to check us in until nearly 2pm by which time the poor little fella was BURSTING :O

Anyway finally got him in and had his first lot of scan's then it was SUCH A RELIEF, he could go and relieve himself, more scans but the pressure made him want to go again so finally had his last lot of scans and he was finished. We'd been lucky too with the parking at the hospital.

Went for the results last wednesday. Mainly good news - no infections in kidneys and bladder however the bladder is quite enlarged - holding 800ml instead of 450-500ml. Have had some meds prescribed which should hopefully allow the bladder to shrink back to normal size.

On the refurb we were away for about 8 days , and the electrician used the time well and worked long days and got everything finished by the time we got back. however inspite of him dusting round after himself there was still a fine layer of dust on everything, which took me a few days to get on top of, although I wasn't going too mad as we had all the decorating to get done before I could get straight, but have the main rooms dusted down.

18th September our other contractor came back and started to put boards down in the loft, this was due to take 2-3 days then he was scheduled to start work on the rest of the paving as long as the weather held. Unfortunately on day two he slipped, while up in the loft, and put his leg through the ceiling, so we lost a few days while he recovered. Made a start on preping on 25th and by the end of this week had the small front verge paved and most of the back garden dug up, cleared and ready for the new paving. They're having a break next week (2nd October) which fitted in with our neighbours moving plans, then they are back for a week - from 9th October during which if the weather holds they should be able to finish the back garden or else they will start making good and decorating inside.

That week I have also arranged for one of our storage units to be cleared - which was why we needed the loft boarded, so it's goint to be a pretty frantic week with appointments etc and we still have to try and fit in an appointment to see gp to get repeat prescription for the meds that the hospital gave us.

The contractor is then taking a break for another week during which I need to get the rooms switched round for the next phase of decorating.

God where has the time gone - it's nearly THREE MONTHS and such a lot has been going on.

Front bedroom has been decorated and we have moved in although it's still housing the two spare mattress (4 ft and 4ft 6). Have moved the sofa bed out into the other bedroom and it currently has stuff stacked on top of it again.

Have retrieved all of our fans from storage - even though the front rooms are cooler than the back, it still got too hot during the July heatwave. Also retrieved the frame of the 4ft 6 bed intending to put it together only to find that I had stored the bolts in a box somewhere unknown in storage unit?? :( hence the mattress is still taking up residence in the main bedroom.

The new loft hatch and ladder are installed and the hallway decorated - have a new wardrobe acting as coat cupboard in place of the fitted ones.

We ordered a 12 yard skip to get rid of our rubbish to date thinking that we would only half fill it but we had enough in the end to fill it.

Still have all the books that I found in the loft, no dealer seems to be interested although some of them seem quite OLD. Have decided to keep these but not sure what I'll do with the others. There was over 100 and will probably keep about a third.

Glazing was done the second week of July, and it's made such a difference. Not sure we could have survived the heatwave without the new kitchen windows. Can still watch quite a bit of the wildlife.

Got the paving works started mid July. The plan was to pave the front garden then the front verge, then extend the existing small back patio, but at the beginning of July when we got the first water bill after the installation of a meter we discovered that there was probably a problem with our water main, so we deferred the work on the front verge and started on the back after the front garden.

Unfortunately it took the water board's contractor about three weeks to come round and decide that there wasn't a problem with their end, so now we've had to dig up some of the new paving in the front garden and have a new main put in. Cheaper that trying to find the old leak.

Then last week had the local tree surgeon family come round and get our greenery into order. They've taken down most of the silver birch (which had been badly hacked about and killed off by some unknown contractor) - just left us a 6ft 'stump' (as requested for our 'feature' gateway), have tidied up our fruit trees and taken away the honesuckle bush that was dominating one side of our garden. We've gained about 3m by 5m of garden at the back, although we can now see through next door's hedge so will have to re hedge our side of the fence when the time is right (about end of september). Then we had them tidy up the front, there was a laurel? that has been tidied up and massive rose bush by the front gate that has been cut back to just a tiny bush. It's left a big gap along the wall but I can get some more plants to fill the whole.

Finally we have the electrician lined up to do the rewiring at the end of this month so we're taking ourselves away for a bit so that he can 'crack on' and not have to worry about getting the power back at the end of each day.

That's all the catching up done..... I think

It was a real 'mad house' here on Monday, the facia guys turned up first to 'crack on' and get the guttering finished, then the guys turned up to spray the foam, but they had to hang around for about an hour before starting as the other guys were still working on where the others wanted to run the hose in :(

They started about 10.30 and estimated about 5 hours to spray the foam - they told us afterwards that the area of our roof space is LARGER than a normal semi.

Then the facia guys discovered that they hadn't been given enough brackets for the guttering
:( They reckoned that the surveyor estimated for brackets to go every metre and not 800mm as they should be so they only got three sides done before they had to leave and get some more - the local supplier only had white NOT black.

The foam guys left about 2pm and the others then returned about for about 10 minutes to finish the last side.

Rubbish got collected on Tuesday, when we discovered that part of the lounge ceiling had been dented :( - they couldn't see what could have done it but later investigation by our builder discovered that there was a long length of twisted pipe up in the roof space that could have slipped between the beams and 'poked' a hole in the ceiling.

Our builder did his usual two days (thursday and Friday) and made a start on our main bedroom which is currently unusable for anything other than storage.

Yesterday he got the fitted wardrobes out and decommissioned an old 'built in' electric heater and we could see the full extend of what needed to be done - not too bad. Today he came back and stripped all the old paper off and made good - also sealed an old vent that is now 'defunct'. Then on his two days next week he will decorate using some odd rolls of paper that I have and paint so that we can move in there and hopefully GOM will have more room to get his w/chair nearer to the bed.

Glazing has been lined up for after the first week of July, so hopefully in the intervening weeks we can get the new loft hatch sorted and the rewiring and new pipework for the radiators planned.

Hoping to have my parents to stay for the Fathers' day weekend as our residents association is having their summer party where we can invite family - it may also be a prequal for my BIG Birthday in July :O