Sun 15th:
Its alright for you mate... is a rather uncharitable thought I have had several times today.
I arrived around 10 to find him asleep in his armchair, with memory book on his lap.. On awakening about an hour later he declined to answer my all establishing questions (who am I, how old are you etc) which he finds difficult, except one - where are you - to which he said hospital, eusebio ward. hmm. Eusebio has been mentioned several times, also in the context of a sandwich bar, so if anyone can make the connection here, please let me know!

A little later most of Stomp turned up to see him and we took over the dayroom, which isn't occupied much at that time of day and is reasonably soundproof, and played a number of tunes - sort of a rehearsal really! I think this is all just an excuse for him to play music with his mates every day, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with his musical abilities whatsoever. He did difficult rhythm clapping, played guitar and bass and also attempted a little singing though his voice is weak and will need working on.

A 3 course lunch was served to him in the dayroom; he then declared himself tired and went for a two-hour kip before receiving his visitors. These were: Ruth and Adam from cambridge with baby daugther Ella, with whom he was much entranced; Jean and Christine (sorry about him nicking your pencil Jean) ; then Caroline and Joan. The latter 4 visitors brought him cds and he now has quite a few photos for his memory book.

He ate a huge tea, languidly whilst wearing headphones and listening to his cds.

I, meanwhile, have red hands from constant washing and disinfection routines and have turned into a grumpy nagging wife barking out repeated commands: slippers! soap! don't go in there! don't do that! stop playing with the emergency button!, concentrate! etcetc...you get the idea.

Hannah, your pasta was much appreciated, I ate it for lunch. Alison, thank you for the food in the porch tonight. Sean has just phoned to say he is popping round with some salads for tomorrow. This is amazing.

On the medical side the consultant is to send him to Harefield this week for special cardiac tests that the L&D doesn't have. I can go with him. When the appointment is booked, I will put it on the blog & calendar so that people don't turn up when he isn't there. They are still puzzled as to a) why he doesn't have many of the outward symptoms of a brain stem infarct, even though he clearly has one, from the scans and b) what the underlying cause of this is in the first place. The consultant today said that they wanted to look "behind the heart".

All - please don't put this blog on any public websites - its just for family and friends and people that will be genuinely interested in Andrews progress - if you have, could you kindly remove it please? This is a private blog.

Many many thanks to you all
Gill
xx