Friday 21 August 2015

Devastated

Ron has failed his driving assessment and I am distraught to think he will never be able to drive our wonderful cars again.   Unfortunately it is not because he drove badly but his brain is just too damaged for him to recognise the left, so he is not able to have lessons or try again because the assessor said he would just not be safe.

I keep feeling like crying, tears come to my eyes and I have a permanant lump in my throat but I am not able to give in to it because Ron is being so stoic.   I am not sure if he realises the implications fully although they were explained to us in detail but he does not always grasp things the first time.  He said last night that we would not send off the report to the DVLC (which we must) as they will then cancel his licence and if he wants to drive again, he will have to take a test.

He failed the cognitive test with a score of 11 - 10 is fail and the aim is zero.

I am dreading the next weeks as surely when it sinks in he will become depressed.

If Ron were reading this he would say that I am being typically pessimistic and please god that I am.  Hope to write more positively in the future.

Monday 17 August 2015

Interesting Times

Where to start?  Two Tuesday Gym sessions cancelled due to ill health - can't be helped but as we missed one when we went away it means no gym for a month.  Thankfully we still have our visits from Ali the Essex OT and in addition we have a visit from Liz who is an Assistant Physio, which means she does what she is told by Ali.   She has a piece of paper telling her what to do and for some reason Ron has taken a dislike to her but she is able to do things that I cannot due to the elbow trouble I have.   I hope I can persuade Ron to overcome his feelings as any help we can get is useful.  Last week we had some very good news as Essex are willing to give us two gym sessions a week plus Ali and Liz will still come.   Today Hayley the physio from  Essex phoned to say they have a vacancy on  Fridays at 3.00 - there is still not a vacancy on Tuesday but hopefully there will be one in 6-8 weeks.  I am hoping that we can continue at Herts and Essex on Tuesdays but the Herts people may not like the idea.

On Thursday Ron has an appointment for a driving assessment using a car that has an adaption for driving with one hand.   This will take approx 3 hours and includes physical assessment, eye test and written cognitive tests followed by the opportunity to have a go in the car and if you then feel confident you can have the assessment on the public road.   A lot is hanging on this and I am a bit concerned that Ron will get tired out because he will be very worked up.

As mentioned last time we went to the Jaguar National Day in Wroxall near Warwick.   We had a lovely time and it was great to meet all our friends who were thrilled that we had made the effort to attend.   In fact we did not know that we had so many friends.   I got on well driving the Mark Ten however on our return journey we broke down at a traffic lights somewhere on the outskirts of Coventry.   It was a very worrying time but a wonderful man came to our rescue.  He first looked under the bonnet and could find nothing wrong so he said he would push us!!! round the corner so we would be safe.  When we got off the main road he said he would check the fuses and he found that the terminal had come off the iginition switch, once replaced the car started and gave us no more trouble all the way home.  What a good samaritan and how lucky were we unfortunately I did not take any details from him and although I thanked him profusely on the day, I would have liked to write and thank him .


We both went to the optician and Ron ordered some new glasses which we collected after a week.  I did not need a new prescription.


Sheila and Steve had a big family hog roast and we enjoyed watching everyone enjoying themselves.

On the 7th I went on one of my garden club visits and Ron was OK for the afternoon on his own.  He is now able to balance and do a wee - a small thing to most people but such a great thing for us.

Sunday was RR lunch meet at Black Bull Fyfield.  The Silver cloud is back on the road and I drove us but I am not happy with the brakes so looks like more money being thrown into the money pit!  When I was loading the car Ron came and got in the passenger seat then he slid across into the drivers seat and drove the car out of the garage on to the drive and then when we came home he did the same thing and reversed the car in to the garage.   He managed well with just one hand and I think he was pleased with himself.

All in all we are happy with Ron's progress but every now and then he has a blip and appears to go backwards,  we are hopeful that the intensive physio that he will be getting will see him making even more progress.