This was a better day all round for Isobel.

Although all she ate for breakfast was a pot of balanced supplement, she ate half her lunch and another pot of supplement. She drank fairly well, and high energy supplement is now being given as a drink. Soon after lunch my brother and Liz arrived to visit. Isobel was at least partly awake for part of the time. Liz said that Isobel squeezed her hand with her left hand and she felt that she was trying to communicate although she was not able to say anything.

I arrived at just after 5pm; Isobel was fast asleep. When tea arrived she woke easily and ate the whole of the main course reasonably quickly. After a short interval Isobel ate her yogurt dessert quickly, but slowed considerably while being fed a beaker of blackcurrant squash. She fell asleep after. While Isobel was sleeping I removed the zygocactus as all the flowers had faded except one; after a week or two in the house adjusting from the high temperature of Isobel's room it will be installed again for the summer in the branches of the hornbeam tree where it spent last summer. I brought in with me one of the two orchids Isobel was given when she was first ill by Ursula and Dallas. They have both come back into flower after a short break, I will bring the other one in tomorrow.

I woke Isobel, but she was very tired. I fed her a pot of balanced supplement and a beaker of orange squash, but this took well over an hour owing to her tiredness. Her right arm looked alright. Her left arm seemed to be locked in a flexed position. I experienced the same hand squeezing that Liz had, but I do not know to what extent Isobel is able to control it. The left hand is showing a tendency to become locked in a claw position in the same way the other hand did a couple of months ago. After Isobel had finished the second beaker of squash I read a few pages from her book to her but was not surprised when she fell asleep. I sat with her for a short while, gradually lowering the bed to a horizontal sleeping position (this is done gradually after food and drink to minimise the risk of vomiting). I left at ten past nine.