Stroke News

Great news! After 13 days in hospital, my boyfriend can chew and swallow, walk (even though it resembles the lurch of a drunken sailor), and can wiggle the fingers of the affected hand, although cutting up food, getting wrappers off things and picking up a tea mug is beyond him as yet.

The reason they let him out so soon was because he completed what should have been three weeks of physio exercises in just three days. The man is quite miraculous in his determination and focus. He had a double stroke, one twenty minutes after the other, caused by 'electrical activity in the brain', which is medic-speak for we don't know what the hell caused it.

The cat has ceased to sulk and, as he can't drive (six weeks ban as his vision in his right eye is still squiffy, apart from having only one working hand), he has turned himself into Alan Titchmarch and is saving me having to water the plants as he can manipulate a hose-pipe with no trouble at all.

All of which puts my tiny health problems into perspective. However, I have signed on with a GP up the road to my boyfriend's and have got two months' supply of ulcer tablets and the promise of some physio for the dodgy fingers. The doctor approves of herbs and alternative treatments - she recommends Glucosamine and was interested in my arnica gel pain relief.

One more piece of news - at long last it looks as if I may have sold me house! But, oh bitter chagrin, the house I sold for £325,000 back in 2003 is now back on the market for £500,000. If only I had held onto it, I would now be able to achieve my dream of having a flat in London and a place in the sun. As it is, I have travelled backward in the property market while everyone else has surged forward, and will have to put my faith in the good old Lottery. Byeeee - I'm off to buy a ticket!