Short stay at home during these 2 weeks. It was great to see my friends, colleagues & the kids too. They were surprised to see me at first but soon got used to my little visits throughout the week. They saw me with & without my patch and were still as chatty as ever! There is nothing more uplifting than a group of kids waving & shouting to you across a playground as you make your way down the school pathway.

Tiredness: Journey home was tiring. Also being home alone, meant it was hard to stop myself from doing all the jobs that needed doing. It was nice to have the place to myself especially when I wanted to rest. Found some social events very tiring this week.

Exercise: Tried a gentle swim. Only managed about 4 lengths with lots of breaks.

Gym: 2 x 5mins on bike plus very light weights (first time & a one off until I’m home for good!) Yea right! This was so not the case. (See weeks 28/29)

10mins gentle bike ride along lane.

A couple of long walks but tended to need less energetic days in between.

Since being back in Wales I have been more active helping out with more jobs & more gentle exercise but still need to take it steadily as head can feel quite giddy if I over do it.

Face: No sudden changes but still a gradual improvement with slightly broader smile to the left & more expression lines around left eye.

Head/balance: OK apart from giddy/nauseous feeling in head when overtired. Coped quite well with long distance drive back to Wales but needed to stop several times.

I wasn’t sure if this was significant to this diary but in a way it is:

While I was home this week, a 10 year old boy who I taught less than 2 years ago, died of leukaemia. He was a really lovely kid. He battled with cancer for six whole years. Keeping my feelings aside I just want to say that through out RHS, several incidents have occurred, including the war in Iraq, which have really made me sit up & think just how bad this Ramsay Hunt really isn’t! I hope you understand what I mean. I haven’t even had to deal with this for 6 months yet and I know given time I will get better, that poor little boy fought cancer from the age of 4 until he was 10 years old. A whole 6 years. And then what..?

God bless you Joshua.

We have planted a tree at school in memory of Joshua.