I went in to see Isobel just before 4pm. She was asleep when I arrived. She had missed lunch as she was so soundly asleep and had slept since breakfast apart from one drink.

I think Isobel must have been close to waking as it took only a few seconds to wake her and she was fully awake in a minute or so which is very unusual. She said that she did not feel hungry and did not want a drink. Her speech was similar to yesterday, a mixture of soft, slurred single words with the occasional sentence. I read to Isobel until her tea arrived at about twenty past five.

The first course was some kind of cheese, egg and potato mix which did not look appetising and was in the form of two thick beefburger shaped objects, but it smelled good and Isobel found it tasty, along with tomatoes. The second course was the usual standby, yogurt. The speech and language therapist has advised against jelly and ice cream while she is assessing Isobel this week. Both courses were consumed briskly with no problems. A beaker of fruit juice was also quickly dispatched, in small mouthfuls with intervals for breathing between mouthfuls.

After tea we chatted and watched television until half six, then I read to Isobel for almost half an hour. I massaged her right arm. This was less swollen than yesterday, apart from a lot of puffiness on the back of the hand. The second finger and the little finger were very rigid, the small finger much worse than usual. Altogether it took twenty minutes to sort out the arm and fingers. I read to Isobel for another ten minutes, then gave her a mug of tea which was again drunk in small mouthfuls without any problem. I went home at twenty to eight. The speech and language therapist comes again tomorrow at 2pm.

In the morning I called in at Bexley's Occupational Health Department to check they had received the consultant's medical report and passed it on to Hillview in connection with Isobel's commutation of her pension. They were not able to confirm the position, but phoned later to say they had not received the report, then found it in today's post. They will deal with it today or tomorrow and pass it on to Hillview who had the original claim last month.