A fairly good day today.

Isobel had a relaxing morning, Iona was not working today and came over for a couple of hours. After lunch Iona went home and we went to Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, to see a specialist neurological physiotherapist.

Isobel walked strongly through the hospital to the gym (about 200 yards) and was put through a comprehensive battery of tests. The physiotherapist noticed visible muscle wasting on the hand and lower arm. It is possible that the slight problems with manual dexterity which have occurred in the past two months are not directly due to the tumour but are caused by muscle weakness. Isobel performed fairly well in balancing tests and was able to walk confidently on her own across the gym and back. During this assessment her language was much more fluent than it usually is, but towards the end became disjointed and difficult to understand as she tired. She was able to walk back to the car without any difficulty and todays performance was comparable to Friday's visit to Maidstone Hospital. Isobel has been given a simple programme of exercises to follow in the hope of improving her abilty to control her balance. They follow on from the test exercises done today and at the moment I don't anticipate she will have any difficulties doing them. The physiotherapist will see Isobel again a few days after we get the consultant's opinion on the latest MRI scan on the 26th, so that these findings can be incorporated into a revised exercise programme.

After dinner Isobel sampled an interesting bottle of green spirits from Majorca which hed been sitting in a cupboard since we won it at a quiz a year ago, "Hierbas Tunel". She had one and a half small glasses and enjoyed them, she rarely drinks alcohol these days.

In the evening we had a visit from Isobel's friend Louisa, who used to work with her at school. Louisa and I were able to swap bad back stories although Louisa's is much more serious than my pulled muscles. Afterwards Isobel finished watching the third Indiana Jones film of the week and then continued her new found interest in sport by watching South Africa beat New Zealand 2-0 in the Confederation Cup.