I will be up in Leeds next week for a few days, to look after my
parents while dad has a cataract removed, he's 84 and almost blind in
his other eye so I want to help mum with him for a few days, she's 81
and fiercely independent but I've insisted on going.

As I'm going for longer than usual, and it's before pay day I was
worried about booking the nurse to look after Otis, it works out very
expensive for anything longer than a couple of days.  The reason I
always have to get someone in is because DH is hypodermic phobic - this
sounds funny but it isn't, he won't go to the dentist, will not have
shots (had stitches put in his nose when he came off his bike in with
no local anaesthetic as refused to have one) and goes funny when
there's needles on TV.  It's not actually the needle, it's the
hypodermic, he can't even bear to look at those  novelty biros you can
get that look like syringes!

Anyway, and I can't believe this, he's let me teach him how to do
Otis's insulin and is going to do it while I'm away. This is so amazing
- he looks like he's going to faint but has promised me he'll be fine
and will call in the nurse if it goes wrong, we're going to have a
couple of practice runs before I go just to be on the safe side as Otis
bolted when he tried to do it last night, but I think that was because
he picked up on DH's nerves.  I told him about how easy it is once
you've done it once, I remember I couldn't sleep the night before I had
to do it for the first time, but Otis is such a pig that so long as you
do it while he's eating he doesn't even notice, thank goodness.

The only thing that worries me is how Otis will rouse DH from his faint
if it happens, I'm sure Otis will howl if he thinks dinner has been
delayed though!

Marcia