I went in to see Isobel at just after 5pm. The Clements had visited in the morning and Pat Ball in the afternoon, but I have not yet spoken to them. Isobel had eaten nothing and drunk very little today by the time I arrived.

Isobel woke fairly easily when her tea arrived, just a couple of minutes after I arrived. She was unable to speak and at times her eyes did not appear to function. There was a full beaker of high energy drink from earlier left undrunk on her table. I gave some of this drink to Isobel before starting on the main course of scrambled egg and tomatoes. Feeding Isobel today was very slow and difficult, with her teeth clenched tightly shut most of the time. The technique is to wait for a slight relaxation of the jaw muscles and then slip the spoon between the teeth, scraping off the food or drink on the inside of the upper teeth. At first there was considerable coughing and spluttering, but this diminished when the pace of eating slowed even more. After about three quarters of an hour Isobel had eaten half the meal and drunk almost half the drink. We switched to concentrate on the high energy drink which Isobel finished very slowly. She then had a little from another beaker of high energy drink. She then ate a pot of balanced supplement with major problems. Returning to the second beaker of high energy drink Isobel managed to drink a little more before falling sound asleep.

Isobel slept for almost an hour before I woke her and asked her to try and drink some more. Over the course of almost an hour Isobel took only two teaspoons of drink, her teeth being clenched shut almost all of the time. Catherine, the nurse who has a good track record of getting Isobel to drink in the middle of the night, came on shift and said that she had completely failed to get Isobel to drink anything last night. I had planned to get Isobel to finish the high energy drink and eat a yogurt, but she only half drunk the high energy drink and did not start the yogurt. When she fell deeply asleep again I gave up and went home just after 9pm. Isobel has not really drunk enough to get by in the past twenty four hours.