Sunday 2nd January
How nice to start the New Year with nothing to report. Admittedly I’m home with Joseph, but there are no major events to tell you about as far as Josh is concerned.I was up until nearly 4am last night taking down the Christmas tree, cards and decorations and catching up on a mountain of washing. It has to be done sometime and I’d rather do it when Joseph’s asleep so we get more ‘playtime’ during the day. Joseph and I went on ‘safari’ on the Wii again today and nearly jumped out of our skin when a hippo charged out from behind a tree and attacked us for edging too close to her baby. After lunch we hit Virgin Active for a swim and Joseph proves just as confident in the water with his new flippers and snorkel as he was in the bath. Meanwhile, over at GOSH, Josh woke late but managed to play Monopoly Street with Claire for a couple of hours. She escaped the confines of the room for an hour or so later in the afternoon, which is just as well as repeating yourself over and over again to compensate for Josh’s memory loss and hearing difficulties can make the days very long and tiring indeed. His skin’s improving with the cream in terms of dryness and itching but is so red it looks like sunburn. He’s on good form, all things considered, and is staying up to watch a movie tonight. No popcorn though, obviously…
Monday 3rd January
Joseph and I spend the morning in Narnia, watching Prince Caspian on TV while I do the ironing. There’s no sign of a lion or a witch in my wardrobe when I put the clothes away, but Joseph insists on digging a sword, shield and armour out of his to take to a friend’s house and act out the story. I’m off to the hospital today, pausing only to fill up with petrol on the way before VAT goes up. Unfortunately, the pump’s cut off mechanism isn’t working and most of it goes over my shoes. Josh has been asleep all morning and stays that way until 6pm. After two late nights at home, I just lie on the bed drifting off in between watching re-runs of The Inbetweeners which I missed first time around. Josh is happy and relatively articulate when he wakes and we watch The Fantastic Mr Fox together along with the weekend’s football before he settles down to sleep. It’s another hour or so before he stops asking me questions about the end of the movie. I’m not quite sure what’s troubling him, but after trying to shout out answers from the relative comfort of my bed and getting so many ‘pardon’s’ in reply, I end up getting up every time and speaking directly into his ear. He sleeps eventually, waking only briefly to tell the nurse to go away when he takes his blood pressure. Having suffered 133 consecutive nights of interrupted sleep here, I’m certainly not going to begrudge him that pleasure…
Tuesday 4th January
With the holidays finally over, normality returns and the hospital has a familiar buzz about it. The tumbleweed has disappeared from the corridors along with the tinsel and mistletoe, out-patients swarm into the reception areas and lifts once again, and the GOSH shop opens so I can now pick up a morning paper without jogging round London in my slippers. Physio is back to its usual mid-morning slot too. Josh does well, despite his initial reluctance to wake up, and marches on the spot while I change his sheets. I slap the steroid cream on his arms, legs and torso once he climbs back in. His skin is slowly improving and applying it feels less like basting a turkey now. Ward round is uncomfortable as the returning doctor monopolises the conversation to such a degree that nobody else gets a word in edgeways, sideways, or lengthways. He talks to me like I’m a simpleton and says nothing of any note. He treats his colleagues the same and doesn’t listen to anyone. Even the conclusions he draws from some basic neurological test are debatable as they weren’t like-for-like questions. Last week he asked Josh what day it was, which quite frankly neither of us knew, but today he asks him if he’s in a hospital, school or a police station. Not too difficult given that there are 4 stethoscope-wearing doctors and a nurse in his room. It’s our feeling that Josh has improved over the last few days and is definitely less confused and more coherent. The hospital school doesn’t start up again until tomorrow and when I tell Josh, he decides to take a nap until the occupational therapist arrives. When she does, I nip back to the flat to strip the beds and hand over the keys. Josh opens a couple more Christmas presents on my return, one of which is a 3D bookmark that only serves to remind us both that he can only see in 2D. Let’s hope 2011 sees Hollywood’s obsession with this silly fad disappear and movies return to normal. To keep him from being upset we play Monopoly Street then watch Diversity’s dance tour and the Dr Who Christmas special on DVD. He’s on good form today and we both lie in bed talking drivel to each other and laughing hysterically until nearly midnight.
Wednesday 5th January
A double whammy of physiotherapy and ophthalmology gives Josh a particularly exhausting start to the day. He copes admirably with both. It’s always heartbreaking when the ophthalmologist covers his good eye and shines a bright light in his blind one and gets no reaction whatsoever. Josh’s scalp is becoming so dry and flaky it looks like he’s got cornflakes in his hair.I try and persuade him to have a bath but he’s having none of it as the water agitated his feet last time and they ended up giving him grief. Claire arrives when we’re playing Monopoly and after a particularly quick change over, I head off home. There’s just enough time to visit the gym before I pick up Joseph, but I can almost hear my body creaking and take it relatively easy. It feels like I haven’t seen Joseph for ages and we have a good afternoon together until he spots an old photo of him and Josh on my phone wallpaper and becomes very emotional. He finds it hard to remember a time when Josh wasn’t in hospital and starts to sob hysterically. I wish I could tell him Josh will be better soon, but it’s unlikely he’ll be home for another 6 months at least. We catch up with Claire and hear that he was pretty lively until after his teacher left, then went to sleep for most of the afternoon. We’re all starting to feel the strain at the moment and Joseph falls asleep clutching my arm in bed. I nod off as well and wake too late to record ‘There’s a rhino in my house’ for him. Probably just as well as it might give him ideas…
Thursday 6th January
It’s raining, it’s pouring and Joseph is snoring. It’s loud enough to wake me up which is just as well as we both slept through the alarm. Once he’s at school I head into Bromley to exchange a couple of Josh’s duplicate presents. After that it’s washing and ironing and trying to cram all our Christmas decorations into the eves cupboard for another year. It’s hard work at the gym again today and when the hot tub beckons I answer its call. The rain hasn’t stopped and there’s a real chill in the air that changes it to sleet every now and again. I take some of Joseph’s books back to the local library – they’re overdue but nobody seems to care anymore and we’re not fined. The books are, not surprisingly, about endangered species, killer snakes, sharks and predators. You really are what you read ! Joseph bounds out of school as usual and with no tennis lesson to rush off to this week we enjoy some more quality time together at home. He got Triop eggs for Christmas and we set about trying to hatch them. It’s very hit or miss whether they’ll make it or not, but we’re hoping to announce the arrival of a few babies in the next 24 hours. Sounds like a new storyline in Eastenders…
