Day 59-63: camera shopping

One of dad's dreams is that the whole family should go out for dim sum together. We managed to do that on Saturday and this cheered him up immensely.

But even better was the trip to the camera shop afterwards. Dad is so keen on photography that he's a well-known face around small camera shops in central London. At this particular shop, the staff were very surprised to see him entering unsteadily with a walking stick. Dad told them all about his stroke.

It was actually me who wanted to buy a camera but it was dad who ended up getting one - a small Sony digital, super-light with a massive screen. Since then, he's been taking it everywhere and his energy levels have shot up.

Today, the physios came twice to see us. The second time, three of them came: our care manager S, physio J, and a neurologist expert K. K made dad do loads of shoulder exercises in front of the mirror so he could see how lop-sided his body was.

We're going for a more directive approach to dad's physio exercises: a timetable with specific instructions rather than loads of different exercises and dad picking and choosing the ones he can do.

But dad was frustrated and complained that so many people had come to see him so many times, and he still wasn't better. He expects immediate results and blames everyone else when they don't come. I was pretty pissed off: S and J have been excellent. I honestly only have praise for our borough's rehabilitation service.

I know dad's feelings are largely affected by the stroke. But I still need to speak out if I think he's being unfair. I told him what I thought: everyone was working really hard for his benefit. He needs to put in the effort too, and not be distracted by, for example, taking pictures of his physio session. And he's made a lot of progress. Wish he could see that.