No. 27 14 April 2012
At last I am able to bore you with details of my happenings. I have recovered almost completely with very little assistance from doctors. Since my last blog I have seen three doctors, had three blood tests, an ultrasound scan and yet none of these have resulted in finding what was wrong. Then, fairly recently, I saw on TV an article which said that young children and people over 65 should have vitamin D supplement. As I am well over 65 (I was 77 in March) I checked this out on the Internet and then ran it past the most recent of the doctors. She agreed that this would be a good idea and prescribed some vitamin D and calcium chewable tablets. After modifying her ideas to roughly half the amount of calcium but maintaining the level of vitamin D it was almost like throwing a switch. Now I have reached a point where I am what (roughly) passes for normal again.Examples of my normality are that, when the weather permits, I'm able to go to the supermarket on my wheelchair without needing to use a taxi. I am also able to go to my Quaker Meeting spending the necessary amount of time in a wheelchair. Talking of wheelchairs I have twice caused a certain amount of wreckage with my waterproof powered wheelchair. The problem, I think, is caused by the length of the shower curtains which I have. The drive wheels of the wheelchair are just the right size and material to catch the bottom of the shower curtain and pull on it. The result of this is that it pulls down the whole curtain assembly and I have to get the builder to send someone to fix it. Since the second destruction I have decided how I'm going to position the chair and how I'm going to use the curtain so that this doesn't happen again (I hope).
The weather in March may not have been what we normally expect, but April is living up to the expectations of April showers. One small advantage with showers is that, if I'm careful, I can go out during gaps between them. That is how I managed to go to the supermarket without getting soaked. I understand that showers are not very helpful to the areas which need water because a sudden downpour of rain is too much for dry ground to cope with and the water just runs off. They say that the drought conditions that many parts of England are experiencing may partly be due to climate warming. The local arboretum is carrying out experiments to see which trees from other parts of the world will grow in England so that as the weather gets warmer they can use them to replace those of our existing trees for which it becomes too warm or dry.
Early next month I am planning to go to an exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham. This exhibition (to which I have been on two previous years) is entirely for people with disabilities – and entry is free!!. On my earlier visits I found things which were useful such as my power operated front door, my waterproof powered wheelchair and my bed. In these days of modern technology new inventions are coming out all the time and this exhibition, being specialised, is the ideal place for me to have a look around. Once I have been I will let you know how it all went.Mike
