I had two major commitments this week, and managed to sort them both today.

First and foremost, I had an appointment at the eye clinic at the local hospital. Unspectacular, in that my eyes are about as good as they were last time. But it’s good news if you take a longer-term view. I have had problems caused by diabetes for the last couple of years, but there has been no decrease in my vision for the last 6 months. Of course, this is the same kind of time frame as my stroke, and I’ve paid a lot more attention to my sugar since then. And the treatment I had 6 months ago, the consultant told me that they started with this treatment 5 years ago, so every time I see him he has statistics over that much longer a period. Promising. Also, I’m used to being pretty anonymous at these places, but today I happened to see my neighbour (who has MS) and his wife, so I had a little natter about nothing.

My second chore of the day was up at the hospital again (hence my combining the two things), and this was my regular drop-in to the stroke ward. There’s a lovely old boy there at the moment, his stroke has affected his speech so you have to be very patient, and listen carefully. He said that he hoped I could meet his wife at some point, and that he admired me (the last time we met, I’d told him about my own stroke and told him about my dead arm). I mean, this guy is really ever so intelligent, he’s just had all this shit happen to him, and he says he admired me. People can be so kind….

Anyway, that means that this week’s obligatory tasks are now complete. Actually I have another task planned, but this one is purely pleasure – tomorrow my wife (who has the week off) is driving me up to Oxford to have some lunch with an old friend, She had an operation just before Christmas, so she, like me, is recovering. This’ll be my furthest trip since the stroke.