My elderly next door neighbour was taken ill yesterday evening. The first I knew of it was when another of my neighbours knocked on my door to tell me that an ambulance had been called to take him to the Norfolk & Norwich hospital. My wife and I spent the evening sitting with our neighbour waiting for the ambulance to turn up. At 11pm, we left him alone and went back to our house to get some sleep. My wife went to bed, and I sat downstairs in the lounge, waiting – I have a front door key to my neighbour’s house, and I need to let the ambulance crew in when they arrive. At 2am my wife calls me to come to bed, and I’m falling asleep on the sofa so I go upstairs, undress and get into bed. The ambulance arrives at 2.15am – over 9 hours since it was called for. I realise that my neighbour wasn’t considered a priority case, but to keep him waiting for that length of time seems unreasonable to me.
I have a little bit of a lie-in in the morning, getting up just before 9am. I feel as if I’ve hand no sleep at all – totally exhausted! I intended to finish off filming my “DBS on/DBS off” video today, but I just can’t make myself get up from the sofa and get on with it. Tremor is controlled as is dystonia. Dyskinesia is no better, but no worse. Voice, ditto. Rigidity and muscular stiffness, ditto. Mood is good, but motivation and energy are severely lacking today. In the end, all that I achieve today is a couple of dog walks and ten minutes in the back garden splitting some logs for the fire tonight – better than nothing, I suppose.
I light the fire (it’s definitely a little bit parky out there), and promise myself an early night tonight.