15th April: A mouse in the house

Simon is still in the rehab hospital and is deeply unhappy there. It is not quite the boot camp that we were promised, just three hours of therapy per week day and very little at weekends. It is terribly boring for him the rest of the time. The highlight of his week was when I sneaked in a cornish pastie. I will take him to Glenelg on Sunday afternoon for a spot of CD shopping, he has compiled a long list of must-haves. We have another public holiday (ANZAC day) on 26th April, and he has resolved to discharge himself from the hospital that weekend. We have stuck it out because the Professor has insisted and we need her support, but enough is enough.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch I am besieged by mice. What is Professor Skippy Orlando doing about this? Sleeping. What a slouch. Ironically, the mouse living in the pantry has a real liking for cat biscuits.

Simon's veggie patch is in full bloom - here you can see the 'dwarf' beans after just 14 days. It will be about four weeks before we are eating the produce. I did calculate that this project was costing about $20 per kilo of veg produced, but there's nothing like the taste of home-grown produce. I once had an allotment in Brighton which, despite having only four inches of top soil over chalk, produced an enormous glut each year. I can still remember my colleagues running down the corridor at the sight of me trying to give away surplus marrows.

Have had a conference paper accepted and quite pleased about that. It is local, so no need for travel. Am still thinking about Beijing. I could probably arrange for a carer to be with Simon for a few days but I don't like the idea of being so far apart. Sometimes I wish we were in England, especially now that spring is there and winter will soon be here.

Had a close shave on the road last week. Driving back from the hospital in the dark a roo jumped out in front of me. I swerved and missed him but the girl in the car behind me hit him. He was a big chap. I stopped to assist her, she had a little boy in the back seat and was very upset. The police came, threw a rope around the roo and dragged it off to the side of the road. They just left it there and told us to get on our way. I've resolved not to drive in the dark anymore.

We heard about the UK elections. Simon and I are sending in a request for overseas postal votes. Not sure if we will be in time, but with luck we will send two votes. Wouldn't it be something if we tipped the balance? I voted for the first time in Australia recently. These were state parliament and some commonwealth seats. They use proportional representation and the ballot paper was about two foot long. I can remember as a student having to debate the pros and cons of PR, but I don't remember any academic mentioning the practical problems with very long ballot papers. When asked to rank 47 candidates, eventually you lose count, make mistakes, and your pencil runs out of lead. You can alternatively just tick a box for a 'ticket' - which means that you vote for all of the labor (correct spelling in Australia) or liberal candidates etc. Personally, I don't favour this. It can result in the Harvey Proctor scenario (Basildon under Thatcher). So, if any of you are teaching government and politics these days, you might like to add that observation to your lecture notes.

On an academic note, I want to know if anyone out there has experience of using blogs, wikis, on-line social network sites etc. as sources of research data, and how do you persuade research ethics committees that this is an acceptable form of data collection. Pucker academic references would be much appreciated.

Love Marian x

1st April: Trapped in hospital

Simon was admitted to a private hospital yesterday for four weeks of intensive rehab. This is intended to give him a much needed boost of physio. It was a hard decision to accept to go back into the hospital environment, but we felt it was for the best. The shock came when we were told that he could not have weekend home leave because our private health insurance company would cut the funding if he was not in his bed by midnight every night! This is just bureaucratic nonsense, but there seems to be no way around it. Simon hates the place and I am very anxious about leaving him there. Ironically, the hospital is just around the corner from our old house in Brighton.

It is a long weekend, and I am told that I can take him out on Friday and Sunday, so I plan to bundle him into the car and drive down to the coast - even if I can just get him out in the fresh air for a few hours it will be a break from the hospital drudge. If any colleagues would like to visit Simon in the evenings he would greatly appreciate it. The hospital is in Hove, and if you email Simon's gmail address I can tell you exactly where to find him.

Skippy is upset because Daddy's away, and has decided to take it out on the female cat across the road again. What did we do to deserve a misogynistic cat?

We have decided against the Beijing trip for the time being. The cost of business class fares was monstrous, and I couldn't really justify that when we need so many other things. I have to prioritise Simon's wheelchair, and would like to get a bed that has a powered back rest so that he can sit up in bed whenever he wants to.

On a brighter note. Simon and I bought a huge raised planter for the back yard, it is just the right height for the wheelchair. I filled it with pea-straw and potting mix, and we sowed a load of veggies earlier in the week. In four weeks time it should be in full swing and ready for Simon's green fingers.

Am managing to survive at work - my boss and colleagues have been very forgiving.

Sorry for the lack of blogs. Time flies - so far this journey has taken nine months. I think we are still gaining ground. The same cannot be said for the Hammers - bring back Billy Bonds I say, I don't care if he's ninety....

Love Marian xx

10th March: Exhausted

We are worn out, wrung out, exhausted. The BIRCH regime requires a lot of travelling (me driving) and doubled effort from Simon. Meanwhile I going to work and trying to close the sale on our house at Brighton. With luck the house will be sold and gone by Monday lunchtime. It will be a great weight off us - we have been carrying $700,000 in mortgage payments for the last four months with interest rates rising each month. I was trained in economics and taught never to be scared of large numbers, but when it is personal like this, it is not so simple. I hope that next week we will climb out of this. Phew!

I think that the Beijing trip is on for June. Anyone care to meet us there?

Marian x

26th February: 'BIRCHed'

It has been some time since the Birch has been used in Australia (at least 50 years), but Simon has been well and truly 'birched' this week. By which I mean that he has been transferred to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Care in the Home team. This, in itself, is a misnomer since he has to travel approximately 6 hours per week to the Birch gymnasium in Felixstowe. One day per week some therapists see him at our home. It is always a strain transferring between teams, but this one has really stretched us. Simon feels quite intimidated by them because they keep suggesting that he is lucky to have his place on their programme and that if he doesn't come up to scratch in anyway they will throw him off. I don't like that kind of approach, but must hold my temper because we need all the help we can get in this next challenging stage of rehabilitation.

Fortunately, Jeremy, our vision therapist is a wonder and has given Simon a real lift every time he visits us. Today, Simon got to the end of our street, back again and into the house unaided using the powered wheelchair. We are still using the chair that we borrowed from Blake and his family. We have been told again that Simon is on an endless waiting list for the chair that he really needs (he will have to sit in it all day so it must be the right size). I think that I will just have to stump up and buy it. However, in the meantime he is getting safer working with this chair and that is encouraging.

Good news is that Simon has sent a paper for publication and has another under review for an A rated journal (with Matthew GC). I felt so shamed that my own publication record was so meagre by comparison that I dashed out two conference abstracts in one day.

We said goodbye to our care assistant, Tracie, this morning. The funding for her service ran out, now we have another team taking over from tomorrow. It is such a strange way of organising things. We were so happy with Tracie and she knew our routine. Also, she liked coming to see us first thing in the morning - apparently not all clients are pleased to see their Care Assistants and can get quite abusive. Simon and I both wept when she left this morning. I now have the task of training up the new assistant(s) in our morning routine. Hope they like us.

This morning, Professor Skippy Orlando, - the renowned, erudite, and elegant chap that he is - got into a scrap with the girl cat across the road and gave her a hiding! So bad that Sally, her owner, had to take her to the vet to be patched up. This is very embarassing. Skippy, however, does not seem to have any morals and believes that beating up female cats is perfectly acceptable. What to do? I could only apologise and offer to pay the vet bill. Sally wouldn't hear of it which was very kind of her.

Congratulations to Mel on landing an excellent new job. Also to my darling Aunt Dorrie on her birthday (90+). Good on ya, Dorrie.

Love Marian x

17th February: Simon's graduation

Today Simon graduated from his Rehab course at the Repatriation Hospital. Here you can see him proudly holding the certificate that he was awarded. Everyone was very pleased with the progress that Simon has made - this included taking a couple of steps using a walking stick for the first time.

Meanwhile, I am trying to fix up a trip to Beijing in June. Simon's consultant has agreed that he can travel with me providing we take some sensible precautions. It will be quite an adventure for us both.

Love Marian x

16th February: Peeling spuds

Tomorrow will be Simon's last day with the rehab team at the Repatriation Hospital. They have shared our journey for around five months and it will be sad to leave them. From here we move on to work with the BIRCH (Brain Injury) team that operates out of Hampstead. They are the bees knees, and have an exciting programme planned for Simon. For this he will need to travel twice per week to Felixstowe (about 1.5 hours each way), plus some therapy at home. The need for travelling is so that Simon can use the excellent gymnasium at Felixstowe and we know from past experience that he really needs this equipment to maintain and improve his physical strength. Also, the Royal Society for the Blind has offered us around 7 weeks of intensive therapy to improve Simon's ability to scan his right field of vision. This will help him to read, but also make him a lot safer when out and about in the wheelchair (we did have a fall recently). The RSB therapist, Jeremy, is a real lively chap; Simon and I took to him immediately, he almost bounces with enthusiasm, and the positive attitude that he exudes is just what we need. Jeremy will come to visit Simon at home three times per week, and plans to build up to outdoor training within a couple of weeks. So from here on, Simon has a full schedule of rehabilitation plus commuting to cope with. He is motivated and very determined.

There have been many achievements over the past couple of weeks, especially with reading and writing. Simon has amended a paper that is now ready for publication; today he peeled a potato (in the occ therapy session); and he is racking up around 30kms per week on the exercise bike.

Today we heard from Simon's old school-friend, Stephen Pantlin. He wrote us a really lovely email - both of us were in tears... Great that you two lads are in touch again.

Sorry that I do not get to blog so often these days. Pretty busy now that I am back at work. I think (fingers crossed) that we have sold the house at Brighton. Not the best price, but enough for us to walk away from it. I guess it will take a month or so to settle while the conveyancers and bankers do whatever it is that they do.

Love Marian x

7th February: An alternative Day on the Green

While most of Adelaide's music lovers rocked up to see Rob Thomas today, Simon and I spent a lazy afternoon at Red Poles listening to 'Baker Suite' a country/folk duo. The setting was exquisite: dinner in the garden under a shady umbrella, and just about the best food I have ever eaten. I have been scouting around for music venues that are accessible with the wheelchair (not many to be found, sadly).

Yesterday, I drove Simon around some of the wineries ending up at Shottesbrooke. Here we discovered that Robyn, the cellar door host, plays in a band called The Yearlings. Simon has four of their CDs. We are looking forward to catching up with their next concert in March.

Simon continues to make progress with his physio work and now regularly clocks up 10kms on the exercise bike. He did achieve 15kms in one session, but this was too much and knocked him out for most of the next day. There is movement returning in his right foot. This did happen before but the movement was involuntary and he was unaware of it. Now, he shouts 'hey hey' whenever his foot moves. This brings me dashing desperately to the rescue only to find him grinning and pointing at his foot!

I am managing to work and get most things done at home for the time being. Things will be easier once we have sold our old house at Brighton. Last week I had a nightmare with the pool cleaners. They phoned to say that they were topping the pool up with water and that I would need to turn the hose off in three hours (a 60km round-trip to turn a tap off). When I arrived, there was water running down the garden path. I found a pipe gushing everywhere, the shed three inches deep in water, and very little water in the pool. The pool cleaner had left the pump switched to 'waste' and it was rapidly emptying the contents of the pool into the shed and beyond. I was so furious that I had to wait and calm down for three hours before I could phone to complain. Fortunately, there was not much left in the shed but I know that there was a bag of cement on the floor - anyone got a jack-hammer?

Simon begins with some new therapists over the next couple of weeks. The BIRCH (Brain Injury Rehabilitation Team) come to meet us tomorrow for initial assessment. They offer therapy in the home. Later in the week we have an assessment by the Royal Institute for the Blind; they are planning some vision therapy for Simon which should help him to scan his field of vision more effectively. We continue to read together slowly. The backgammon is picking up speed (I am still winning - just).

Thanks to everyone for birthday cards and messages. Too old to count them from now on, let's just call them 'golden years'.

Love Marian xx