Yesterday was a day out of the ordinary, as it turned out. The day had actually started in the middle of the night when I woke up and realised that as it was practically the end of the month, I had scheduled myself to put a little bit of credit on the old iPhones into which I have inserted PAYG SIMS and which gives me a 'de facto' backup iPhone for if and when the occasion demands. All of this worked more or less as I wanted it to but in the course of looking some of my records, I saw that on Meg's phone there was a message indicating that she needed to update her NHS app or lose it altogether. I had previously made some efforts to get Meg's NHS app fully functional but had been thwarted as I had forgotten the email address that we had used to set up the system and had a horrible feeling it was an out of date email to which we no longer had access. But the fact that the NHS had used Meg's email address to contact her as a reminder was like manna sent from heaven and although I had forgotten the password, this was fairly quickly regenerated and good notes made as to what they both are. But there seems to be quite a complex procedure which is probably an enhancement to security in the latest version of the NHS app because the system is now demanding a photographic ID which had to be located on my main computer system and then transmitted to Meg's iPhone. At least we now have an almost working NHS app on Meg's iPhone but there is a crucial last step when the system is probably going to take a photo of Meg's face and use AI software to reconcile the image just taken with the image on the passport. I suppose this is a good security procedure and once it is in place, I am sure it might be very useful not least in getting appointments and ordering new medicines but we are not quite there yet. This morning was the day allocated to do my shopping and I was delighted that the young 'A'-level student, studying Psychology had been allocated to be Meg's 'sit' for the morning. I scoured my bookcase to see if there were any psychology books that might be more useful to her rather than sitting on my bookshelves. I managed to find three Psychology type books, as well as a simple statistics for psychologists primer, a good study guide and a little book on report writing. I am delighted that these books are going to go to a good home and I hope they help her achieve good grades and help her in a subsequent career. Altogether, this young carer spent three sessions with us today (a getting Meg up call, a 'sit' session and then doubling up to provide the lunchtime call). We had a lunch of curry which is really just bits and pieces thrown together and served with rice but we had barely finished this when the wheelchair specialists called around. We knew that they were scheduled to come some time between 1.00 and 5.00 but in the event turned up when we were just on the point of finishing our meal. The wheelchair specialist fitted some special ankle straps so that Meg's legs can be correctly aligned with the wheelchair frame but at the same time they provided a specialist 'lateral support' which is a triangular piece of kit that fits into the wheelchair in such a way that Meg does not slope sideways (as, without any upper body strength, she is prone to do)
After the wheelchair specialists had made their adjustments and then departed, we received a telephone call from a physiotherapist who was telephoning to make an appointment to see Meg. Some OTs/physiotherapists had previously called me and I had briefed them about Meg's legs which I was concerned about getting 'locked' into a particular position after she had been sitting in the same position for most of the day. They had said that we were 'in the system' and we should expect a visit in a few weeks time - however, there might have been 'wheels working with wheels' because I was delighted that they could come and pay us a visit next Monday. They mentioned a ramp as a household adaptation which was something I had requested months ago in order to get Meg out of the French windows at the back of the house but is probably something we no longer need as the summer is effectively over and the days are gone when we can enjoy summer sunshine in the back garden. To my considerable surprise, though, the physio mentioned a more specialist chair, specifically a 'Riser-Recliner' type of chair which I thought had been ordered by another OT weeks and weeks ago. I had been waiting patiently only to be informed a few days ago that the OTs were progressing items ordered last April and it is now practically November but we entered this system last June so had been told to wait for at least another couple of months. This piece of equipment is moving from the 'nice to have' to he 'completely essential' in my view, for the following reason. As a result of not standing or walking, Meg is losing all body strength and in particular 'core' strength. This means that even when sitting in a chair she is apt to slip sideways and even gradually slip off the chair altogether unless special precautions are taken. In the chair in which she is seated after the carers' teatime call, we have the chair at an angle, then make sure that she has a special triangular pillow behind her augmented by a little cushion designed to stop sideways movement and finally a small platform covered by a blanket so that her feet are just at the right height and hopefully she will not slip too far, or at all. The young carers are particularly good at getting Meg into just the right orientation but we are getting to the stage where a lot of these little aids and supports will not work as Meg loses more and more core strength.
This afternoon, we started to view a film first broadcast or repeated) on BBC4 the previous evening on the life of Thomas Hardy through his own poetry. Meg and I were looking forward to this but the whole programme a little wistful and did not quite live up to its promise. But also broadcast last night was he whole of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' in a series of four parts. So we should be able to watch this at the rate of one episode a day for the next four afternoons which should be quite a treat for us. I try to note what the good evening programmes are as they are broadcast day by day and then get them on catchup the following day.
© Mike Hart [2024]