I started doing this diary in June. If you haven't been following have a look at the Cast of Characters which gives a quick low down on the essential day to day characters who are mentioned here...it will make more sense if you do.

     

Its ridiculously late at night and I'm in that state of tiredness where nothing makes much sense anymore so I have to keep this short and write more about the interesting bits tomorrow.

I made some mistake setting the alarm and didn't wake up till half an hour before I was meant to be in Swansea which is an hour and a half drive away. Traffic on the Carmarthen road was dreadfull as usual and I got there at 12.00. The new arm was ready and waiting and looked very exciting. The first worrying moment came when I went to put it on, the socket which had been so tight I had to struggle to squeeze my stump into about 10 days ago seemed to have mysteriously grown and was so loose it was almost falling off. We did realise in the end that I had obviously lost so much weight since I had the teeth out and had been living on a diet of rice pudding that it had caused that much tissue loss in my arm. Well that didn't help but after a 'two-way stretch' was put on it felt less in danger of falling off and after I had applied water to my arm I could at least work the thing. Open and close works good as does the rotation but I have yet to get the knack of 'co-contracting' which means moving both sets of muscles at the same time in order to switch modes. I will get it though and I will also get used to the weight of it eventually.

The drive home was worse than the drive there in terms of traffic and I didn't get back till 3.15pm. Heather was already here waiting and after I had the fire going we made a start on the lottery application forms. With a short break for dinner (my first meal at the communal table for two weeks) we carried on working until it was all done with many frustrations in between, many many frustrations. Heather just left, about 4.00am and will be ringing me early to wake me up so I can send some faxes out. But I fully intend going back to bed straight away. Then I can actually play with my new arm. I've been doing it a bit here and there, but haven't had a chance to sit down on my own and really concentrate on it.

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