Chapter 266 - Another Signpost

Her birthday yesterday. I took her to the club for lunch. I wheeled her in her fold-up walker which doubles as a wheel chair. She is terrified when being wheeled in the wheel chair or the walker. I rouse on her not to grab at doorways, railings and the like as we go by, she grabs at things to prevent me tipping her out, even though I tell her that doing so is more likely to cause her harm. I ordered her potato & bacon soup and chili king prawns with noodles. The bowl of soup was large enough for a main course, the prawns arrived as some sort of pork & noodle dish, I complained, someone blamed a new waitress (why can't people accept the consequences of a mistake without blaming subordinates?) and in due time prawns were served, meanwhile I had to commence my steak. After the soup she was unable to eat all the noodles with the prawns, none of the latter were left though. I delayed ordering coffee & cake by walking up to the chemist for some meds for me & while there bought her weekly puzzle magazines plus a lottery ticket as another present for her. When I returned to the club she had decided she wished to go home rather than eat anything else. I had parked across the street from the club's car park (which was full at the time) so on leaving she refused to be wheeled across the road again (too dangerous she says) so I had to bring the vehicle into the car park for her. We were at the club for about 3 hours.

Three neighbour friends visited separately late in the afternoon to wish her happy birthday. Although we were in bed about 10pm, she was frequently out of bed to use the commode until past midnight. Somewhere one of us read that cold packs ease the central pain we think she has. The night before I gave her a packet of frozen beans to apply to her left leg; Last night she suggested the cold packs we used to keep in the freezer for when we went on picnics and road side stops, so I placed those into the kitchen freezer. A frozen pack may have helped yet she prefers "Ice Gel", the blue gunk in a tube that leaves a menthol smell. During the night I hazily woke as she was getting in or out of bed, sometimes I rose to help her. Earlier she had requested the firm square chair to sit in, at 4:30am (or was it 5:30?) she needed the more comfortable chair so I brought that into the bedroom. She went to sleep in that. I'm unsure where she was when taking her 6am meds. I went back to sleep without my CPAP, waking several times. About 7am she returned to her bed, I emptied the commode because she thought it full enough to splash whenever I moved it. I emptied it, than she needed to use it again. With my CPAP on I slept until a little after 9. She was awake. I rank the GP's surgery, who was not in yet and fully booked up for the day anyway and after explaining my wife had a CT scan on Tuesday & was in agony, I was told a note would be left for the GP to contact us. Now after lunch and no phone call. About 9:30am I rang the neuro's room in Hot Air City to ask for a referral to initiate the apomorphine tests as suggested by the PD nurse we saw a few weeks ago. She is quite negative about an apomorphine trial but I believe she needs to at least see whether she is able to tolerate it before deciding she is unable to cope with injections. Unfortunately, the neuro is not in this week so I need to ring back next Tuesday. The PD nurse seemed to think her quality of life may be much improved.

She is scared. And in pain, it never leaves her left leg. She is unable to walk, her feet don't leave the floor. Our reading indicates Vitamin B6 is beneficial for central pain; yesterday I had her take 100mg of B6 (some time ago it was one of the anti-oxidants she regularly took) plus the magnesium compound that also includes 60mg of B6 but this morning I told her not to take anymore, since the GP contra-indicated B6.

I want to take her up to the little town north of here to have a Bowen treatment. She refuses to go, scared of travelling along the winding country road.

She has caught up with her puzzle magazine entries so I posted them for her in our village mail box. There has been no embroidery or patch work activity in the last week. Some days ago I encouraged her to do some Wii stepping for a little exercise but she was unable to do more than about 200 steps so that is not being pursued further.