Life goes on  You can go with the flow. For me, a trip to the
loo meant a life-saving dash by ambulance  When you're
paralysed, you lose control of a lot of things. Including
peeing. (I hope my readers aren't too squeamish - I promise not
to venture into the area of bowel management.) Well, peeing is
accomplished via a plastic tube, a catheter, attached to a bag
strapped to a leg. For men, a catheter can be attached with
something resembling a condom or, as in my case, a hole can be
drilled directly into the bladder. This is a supra-pubic
catheter and mine is changed every month, usually by a district
nurse.  Except on this occasion she couldn't. She had withdrawn
the old catheter but the new one wouldn't go through the hole,
no matter how gently she tried to thread it. Either the hole was
beginning to close up - it can do this with alarming speed - or
my muscles had gone into spasm and were refusing to cooperate.
Another thing that happens when you are paralysed and without
feeling is that your body lacks t