Wow this sets a record for slackness! One whole month plus between blogs. By way of excuses it has been a difficult month.

Elaine has been gradually getting weaker and finding it difficult to move around reaching the point about two to three weeks ago when she could not get out of bed without a lot of assistance. We also had to sometimes use her walker as a wheelchair to move around. I had decided that part of the problem was the amount of time, nearly all day, that she was spending in bed which naturally caused muscle wastage. So I had embarked on a program of exercises but realised after a while that firstly I did not really know the best exercises todo. Secondly my powers of persuasion are not good when it comes to actually getting her to do them. Not that Elaine did not want to do them, but that there were issues of stiffness and inability.

In this period we had the pleasure of a week long sleepover by Lyla. It did wonders for Nannee and for me. But Elaine continued to struggle. So I asked Dr Geoff Gild to do a care plan for a physio, which he did and we contacted Zoe Brest do fill that role. She was fantastic and in just three visits had Elaine sitting up with minimal assistance. She knew what to do to get things working and I was very excited at the prospect of improvement.

Then Elaine went downhill, almost as if she had decided that it was all too hard and it was time to surrender to the cancer. That is where we are at now. Elaine has said all along that she wants to stay at home until the end and I am doing my best to make this happen. The amazing thing is that a well oiled machine has swung into action with almost no prompting from me. Dr Geoff visits at least once a day, Silver Chain comes with two girls every morning to wash Elaine and attend to the medication pump then every night to make sure she is okay and they do not ignore me making sure that I am also okay. Then there is our family who are being very attentive, particularly Toni who has been here every day.

This is a difficult period for both of us, Elaine obviously and me. We knew that this time would come and have sort of prepared ourselves but the reality hits home hard, very hard.