MND can get in the sea

The neuro consultant in Oxford told me in November that I should enjoy this Christmas as although it probably wouldn't be my last, it would be the last as a mobile and healthy person. So, although I was determined to do just that, I also didn't want to do anything different to our usual Christmas routine. I have relaxed with a coffee, a limoncello (homemade by my daughter Rachel and hubby to be Max), or a vegan Baileys, and I've read an Agatha Christie (Poirot's Christmas), and Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys, in search of our next train trip! As our two families live either side of a stretch of water, we can't really do a big meet up but we always make sure we all see each other.  Christmas Eve was spent with Alice's family, eating, drinking and playing games, before we came home to finish our Christmas jigsaw before father Christmas started his rounds. We rose early on Christmas Day to take part in our first festiv...

My first week at home after retirement has been very restful and satisfying. After pushing Alice out of bed so that she can go to work to enable me to continue to live the lifestyle that I am accustomed to, I have had a daily snooze, followed by breakfast in bed  then playing and sorting vinyl and watching old black and white films on TalkingPicturesTV. I've also made the first of many winter vegetable stews, to my mum's recipe, and finally got around to making jam out of the blackberries that I picked in the summer.  Don't feel too sorry for Alice though, as I will do the cooking, the pot washing, the bins and the hoovering, like the proper little house husband I am going to become, and I will do as much as my body will allow me, for as long as I can. I also, have lots of things to sort through prior to our impending house move, and I will need to gift, sell, or get rid of lots of items I had accumulated over the years.  One aspect of being given a terminal diagnosis is ...

I am retired! After 16 years in the NHS at Southampton and a working life that started with a paper round in 1980, 40 years of gainful employment has come to an end. On leaving school, I trained and worked as a chef for 10 years at various cafes, restaurants and hotels, then I was a sweetcorn and garlic picker for 3 years  followed by an office job at Plessey (Siemens, BAE) for 11 years before I realised that if I wanted employment fulfillment, I would have to retrain.  Off I went in 2005 to Portsmouth University to gain a diploma as an Operating Department Practitioner, and I worked in operating theatres for 10 years before moving into the Emergency Department & Orthopaedic research team, where I have been for the last 6 years.  Obviously my retirement has come a little earlier than I had planned and with my diagnosis, it was a bittersweet feeling. I will miss my work colleagues and the wonderful NHS, and I had to hold back the tears, as I gave my leaving...

Samuel Johnson, arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history, once said "Depend on it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully".  While sifting through my notebooks, I found an old list of Things To Do Before I Die which must have been written sometime in the early 2000's. Some I have since ticked off things like watching a stage of the Tour De France, go on a cruise, and run a marathon. Others did not and sadly, will not happen, like visiting a south american country, watching an overseas test match or to see a fish riding a bicycle.  Of course, the most important thing on the list, to walk my daughters down the aisle, is going to come half true. My daughter Rachel, is getting married next April and I'm determined to be able to walk arm in arm with her and pass her into the safe hands of Max. If and when Anna gets married, I will be gone but I will be there in heart and spirit, I promise Anna ...

The date of 27th November marks 16 years since David started working at UHS and the first day we ever met.  We both remember it well as I had to stay late at work to bring a patient up to recovery from angio and poor David also had to stay late on his first ever day at work to help me look after them.  We laughed about the fact we had the same surname and then I thought nothing more of that skinny bloke from the island. 16 years later, the 27th November was also the day we travelled to Oxford together to the John Radcliffe hospital for an expert second opinion.  We were in no doubt of David’s diagnosis but as he had been referred to Oxford for consideration of a research trial, getting a second opinion was part and parcel of this appointment. We both had the day off for the appointment and had decided to head up early to visit the Wasteless Wonderland – an eco-market in the main shopping centre.  It had been featured on South Today and sounded right up ou...