Dear LPG,

On a couple of occasions, I have read news posts on your website which are from people who are housebound, and I want to say that I have a friend in that position who really values the little bits of daily information and inspiration that your contributors deliver, although I have to admit that I had little idea of what life must be like for her.  I try to see her at least once every week and she always appears cheery and positive.  But when I say goodbye it occurs to me that I am leaving her alone again.

People become reclusive for many reasons.  There are the obvious physical ones and also the psychological ones such as agoraphobia.  I live alone and recently had my knee replacement operation which left me in hospital for 5 days, after which I was sent home with the promise of visits from the district nurse and regular care visits.  My daughter also came to stay with me each evening after her work for about a week and I was not short of visitors, who were willing to make their own cups of tea, but I found myself really unsteady when trying to get around the house and I became very reluctant to venture past the front door on my own.

It was then I got a flavour of what living alone and being unable to get out must be like.  For about three weeks I sat at home alone, but I am lucky enough to be able to use my computer, and the TV became much more important to me, as did the telephone.  Time seemed to become an unknown quantity and I cannot explain how much I looked forward to the sound of the front door bell.

I got to the point where I was checking for, and really looking forward to, each of the nurses and carers visits.  I found myself having a whole new level of thankfulness for every family member, neighbour and friend that came to visit, even the ones that used to annoy me a little.  I even found myself getting engrossed in a couple of soap operas which I have continued to follow and watch regularly.

While all this was happening to me, I knew that my inability to get out and about was almost sure to be short term, but that two-week experience has left me with just a little more insight as to what housebound people really have to deal with.

I continue to visit the friend I mentioned at the beginning of this message and have much more of an understanding of what life must be like for her. 

So as a person who has briefly experienced what it is like to spend time wishing there was someone interesting at the door, can I say that we are all interesting to a certain extent, and we should all make the time to visit anyone who we know is housebound or just lonely for whatever reason, on a regular basis.

LJ, Mottingham

LPG found some information which may give an insight

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