3 November 2009 - Of surgery and adaptations...

Yesterday we took a trip to Alder Hey to see a neuroscience team regarding a possible surgical intervention for Morgan. We are considering an intrathecal pump, which would deliver small doses of one of Morgan's existing medicines direct to the spine. Unsurprisingly, this is a decision we're taking time over. At the time I write this, the Wikipedia entry is somewhat out of date and paints an unduly gloomy picture. All the same, there are risks associated to the procedure that we have to take into account. At the end of our meeting we decided that we would first try an additional medicine intended to reduce Mo's spasticity and see how that goes for a few months.

Things are moving on very slowly with our house adaptations. We have achieved a lot, but there's lot more to be done. Morgan moved into his downstairs bedroom in August - it now features a motorised hospital bed and an "h frame" hoist that can lift him from any part of the room. We have had a window seat put into the bay so that there's seating in the room without needing to take up lots of floor space - this makes it relatively easy to move a wheelchair around the room. Additionally we have several of Morgan's lights installed and in regular use along with a music system. The room is easily the nicest and poshest in the house!

The major adaptation work is yet to come. This will involve widening some of the ground floor doorways and adding new doorways, chopping our beautiful kitchen in half (sob!) to create an adapted downstairs bathroom and installing a new boiler. I expect the work will take a couple of months - as yet, we're not quite sure how we're going to get through this! The prospect of living in the house through all that work is not very palatable and yet there aren't many alternatives. Anyway, we're waiting for a date for the works to commence and then we will be able to plan with a bit more clarity.

Between now and then, I'll be having a routine operation on my sinuses. They have been causing increasing health problems over the last couple of years and it will be excellent to get past those issues. The surgery is due to take place on 1 December so I hope to be fully recuperated in time for Christmas!