There is an unwritten rule about keeping people up to date with how Ladan is doing, if I write from a largely positive perspective things will look less positive shortly after posting the update, and if I write from a less than positive perspective then things will look better following the update, so it is with this in mind that I try to avoid negative updates but sometimes regret writing more up-beat ones. Needless to say Ladan hasn’t been quite as responsive since I wrote the last update, particularly in the days immediately following it. That said, Ladan has been getting as little stronger again, physically moving her head and arms with a little more strength, so that’s something slightly encouraging, today however she was very cold, below 35 degrees, which has been happening quite often since moving to Peterlee.

One of the sadder things to happen recently, actually later the same morning that I posted my last update, was that a 24 year old girl in the rehabilitation centre passed away. It was apparently a very sudden but peaceful end. Rachael Foster was fully conscious, having conversations and generally seemed to be doing very well, she was visited every day by several members of her family and clearly had a lot of support from friends and relatives, her funeral was attended by so many hundreds of people that streets had to be closed in Darlington as reported here in the local press.