After a manic month and lots of sleepless nights (even more so than usual) we finally moved in to our new home last Saturday 1st November. We did it all ourselves, hired a van, rallied the troops and despite the appalling weather (it rained heavily all day) we kept smiling and got on with it, I have to say a massive thanks to all the boys (and girl) who had the job of lugging heavy furniture (Ash, Bill, Bruce, Stacey, Alec, Bobby & Andrew) I haven't found any breakages yet so they did a good job. Although we are still surrounded by boxes the new Bungalow is already feeling like home and I can already see the benefits. Patrick's positional chair is set up in the kitchen so he can be out there with me while I'm busy doing 'Mum stuff' he doesn't have to be left on his own to entertain himself anymore, and he can sit up to the table with us at meal times which is great. I can wheel him from the kitchen into any room on the ground floor, there are no restrictions which saves my back a lot of aching. Isaac is loving all the space in the new house, he even has room to practise his power slides across the living room floor so he's well happy!
There was one drawback to the move, we weren't allowed to bring our pets, Chewey the daschund and Poppy cat with us. There were lots of tears when we found out but we have found really good homes for both of them and they are doing fine. I still expect the dog to bark whenever someones at the door, it's all very quiet without them.
That's the move news out the way, on to Patrick. We had his 6 monthly appointment with his Neurologist Fiona yesterday. He's been fairly stable for the last 6 months, he's had good days and bad days in equal measure but we've coped OK and he's still happy and making small amounts of progress so that's good. We made the decision yesterday to go ahead and start the ketogenic diet. He will be referred to a hospital in Oxford and we'll have to go and stay there for a few days while they start him on it, he'll have to fast for 2 days and then start on a high fat diet, more info can be found on this fantastic website Matthews Friends. There is also a film called 'First Do No Harm' starring Meryl Streep which follows the true story of a family in USA and their battle to get their son onto the diet. I'm not sure yet when we'll be going to Oxford but it is likely to be before Xmas, I don't know how we're going to pack it all in! In the meantime we're increasing most of his anti epileptic drugs. We found out yesterday that Fiona is leaving to have a baby in December and will be on maternity leave next year, we were given the choice of different neurologists to see while she's away and have opted for Prof. Kennedy. We saw a lot of him before when Patrick was admitted and put on Vigabatrin, he seemed quite easy to get on with back then so hopefully we'll have a good relationship with him like we've had with Fiona.
We're off on a little holiday next week to recover from the madness of the last few months, and to recharge in time for the madness of the next few! Only going down to Centre Parcs in Longleat but we're planning on a bit of pampering in the spa and in the tropical indoor pools, I'm sure there'll be lots of photo's to share.
