{"id":1923,"date":"2007-04-30T15:15:18","date_gmt":"2007-04-30T13:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/levenmetals.nl\/dagboek-april-2007\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T16:26:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:26:46","slug":"diary-april-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/levenmetals.nl\/en\/diary-april-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Diary April 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easter without the kids<\/h2>\n

There are some people who would enjoy a \u201clong weekend without the kids\u201d. Those people are not us. While they probably envision a fun weekend of hiking, cycling, going to see a movie, going out for dinner and generally having a great time, all we have to look forward to is a weekend of hard work. I have to eat, drink, use the bathroom and get put in\/taken out of bed. Usually, the kids help to lighten Hein\u2019s workload, but this Easter it was all on Hein. Luckily, Marjanne was there to help us with dinner. I don\u2019t want it to sound like we didn\u2019t do anything, we played bridge, celebrated easter with company and even went to the Garden of Europe on Easter Monday. And, of course, we went to collect Ward from the airport. <\/p>\n

Garden of Europe<\/h2>\n

Besides going to Ikea, visiting the Garden of Europe is probably the most bourgeois trip imaginable. Nonetheless, I think everyone should experience it at least once. The last time I went there was 12 years ago with my mother, but Hein had never been before. The Garden of Europe is a beautiful park and a true Eldorado for people in wheelchairs, broad asphalted paths without as much as a bump in sight. I\u2019m not much of a tulip fan, I prefer bushes and shrubs. Things that at least look self-sufficient. The Garden has beautiful trees, too.
\nThe most surprising part of our visit was something that didn\u2019t even have anything to do with gardening; a fashion show for hats, designed with the theme of \u2018royalty\u2019. We were right at the end of the catwalk, so every model stared right at us when they did their walk. Here are a few hats we saw there. I was cheeky enough to just ask the photographer present if she could email some pictures to us. She has her own website: www.pilipipa.nl<\/a>. Thank you. <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Summer<\/h2>\n

It was only April 15th, but it already felt like summer. The Rotterdam marathon was cancelled halfway through because of the heat. I slept in my chair last night, feeling sick, weak and nauseous besides feeling like I\u2019m about to melt. I\u2019m sitting in my chair like a sack of potatoes. By five, I finally started to come back to life a little bit. Too bad the following night was as hot as ever. I glowed. There was only one thing on my mind: I\u2019m not looking forward to the summer. I\u2019ve put it out of my mind for now. <\/p>\n

I was dreading the sweltering days they\u2019d predicted for the end of the month, but, looking back, they weren\u2019t so bad. The wind was cooling and the nights were bearable. The only thing I don\u2019t like now are the days off. Everyone is off to do their own thing. I spend those long weekends, in which others go cycling, hiking, play tennis and going out for drinks, inside. I did sit in the sunroom a lot. <\/p>\n

LEGO sorting nights<\/h2>\n

After the charity cycling event last year, my sister-in-law Monieke came up with another idea to raise money for ALS: a LEGO sorting night. A friend of hers is a LEGO dealer and has a house full of unsorted LEGO bricks. Once a month, Monieke organises a sorting night, on which people can sort bricks for five euros an hour, the proceeds of which go to ALS research. I was excited, if a bit doubtful of the amount of buzz it would generate. Besides simply raising money, it\u2019s about raising awareness for ALS, something Monieke has gotten pretty good at. By now, there have been three sorting nights, all of which have had a sponsor who doubled the proceeds. They\u2019ve earned 580 euros thus far. That\u2019s about one-third of what the cycling event brought to the table. That\u2019s not all. Monieke has big plans: she wants to organise a fundraiser using the sorting money. It\u2019s supposed to take place on the 16th of November. All of the proceeds will go to the ALS foundation. <\/p>\n

Hip pain<\/h2>\n

I sleep on my right, which means my right arm and leg need to be properly supported by my mattress. My left arm and leg don\u2019t have the same support, which leads to some strain on my left shoulder and hip. As my muscle mass diminishes, it\u2019s becoming harder and harder on my body. I\u2019ve been using two pillows to support my left arm for a while now, but until recently, my leg was fine without any supports. For the past two weeks, however, it\u2019s been awful. My hip starts to hurt and I spend the night writhing. I haven\u2019t had much good sleep since and standing up only makes the pain in my hip worse. Maybe I\u2019ll try using a pillow for my leg too, but I\u2019m scared that would render me completely unable to move. Another option would be to start using Ibuprofen again.<\/p>\n

Floor in dorms<\/h2>\n

On Saturday, April 28th, Floor moved into student housing a room on the third floor so I\u2019ll never see it in person, only on photos. Fortunately, she\u2019ll be home on Wednesday and Saturday, which made the change a whole lot less abrupt. In the future, she says she\u2019ll spend the weekends back home. It\u2019s going to take a while before I\u2019m used to it. <\/p>\n

Swan attack!<\/h2>\n

Boating season is here again. Our rubber boat was moored in the harbour, but someone punctured it on the first day, so in the meantime, Ward is using his friend\u2019s boat. They were just cruising around when, out of nowhere, a swan, already looking quite aggressive, came at them. They tried moving past it as slowly and as quietly as they could, but before you knew it, the swan came flying at them like it was a commercial for an airliner. Ward\u2019s friend Lex hit the floor of his boat, his hands covering his head, while Ward jumped overboard and swam to the side. Lex got hit by one of the swan\u2019s wings while Ward pulled himself on the shore. Apparently, the swan was still mad from being hit by another boat earlier. The next day, it turned out that Ward had a bacterial infection in his arm. He spent the rest of spring break inside, wearing long sleeves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter without the kids There are some people who would enjoy a \u201clong weekend without the kids\u201d. Those people are not us. While they probably envision a fun weekend of hiking, cycling, going to see a movie, going out for dinner and generally having a great time, all we have to look forward to is … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Diary April 2007”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2007-en","category-diary"],"yoast_head":"\nDiary April 2007 - Living with ALS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/levenmetals.nl\/dagboek-april-2007\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diary April 2007 - Living with ALS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Easter without the kids There are some people who would enjoy a \u201clong weekend without the kids\u201d. 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