The Day with the “Acorn Antiques” Program

Today started with tears. Not from kp, but me. When kp had the accident, we had lined up a number of events for the year. kp was going to see “Fame” & “Love Shack” at the Sunderland Empire, “Billy Elliott”, “Mary Poppins” and the show we were both REALLY looking forward to “Acorn Antiques” (in London). The London shows were Karen’s birthday present to me, although I was only too well aware that Karen was REALLY looking forward to Acorn Antiques as she loves both Victoria Wood AND Julie Walters. Acorn Antiques is only running for 6 months and we had tickets to the last day (matinee performance).

Obviously the accident prevented from Karen from seeing all of the above. So…after we had got over the first 10 days and kp had pulled through, I started to do something about the tickets. We gave the local tickets “Fame” and “Love Shack” to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital in thanks for the truly incredible care they have given Karen. Karen can be demanding when she is well, and they have put up with her when she is unwell. They are awesome. (I kept warning Karen that if she didn’t behave they will sedate her until she is off the ward !)

I put the other tickets up on Ebay for sale. The Acorn Antiques landed in the hands of a gentleman called David Lodge who had bought them for his mother (who is caring for her husband who has lung cancer). Karen lost her mother to Lung Cancer, so she was thrilled that the tickets ended up in the hands of people who deserved it, and who would also really appreciate the show.

David said he would give us a show report and sure enough it came through the post today. He had sent the Acorn Antiques programme for Karen and the loveliest of letters. His letter really touched me. He described in detail key moments of the performance, but what really got to me was the email he had sent to the theatre (a copy of which he included with the letter) :-

David’s Email :-
“Dear Sirs I am writing for two reasons

First of all I would like to thank you for the advice I was given in looking at Ebay for tickets I will be coming to the show for the Saturday matinee and cant wait! ! !

Far more importantly I hope that you can help me with something???

I bought the tickets (Stalls 03&4) trom a guy called David Pollard who had ordered them as a birthday present for his wife Karen. Tragically on April 27th, Karen was involved in a serious car accident and nearly died. She has been in Hospital ever since.

David has posted on the web a diary over the last few weeks that makes for heart breaking reading KPSCONDITION.BLOGSPOT.COM. I have never met these people and dont know why I am doing this but feel compelled to act! Do please check out the website!!! I will forward the email I have received from David (as a thank you for the tickets) to show I am not some nutter.

Could you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pass this email and information onto Julie WaIters and Victoria Wood because Karen is a huge fan and was so looking forward to seeing the show but will now never get to see it. If that is not possible could you please
get a program signed or some Acorn Antiques memorabilia that I can send to Sunderland General Hospital for Karen to know that if she was not at the theatre in person she will be there in spirit with me.

I can assure you that I have never done anything like this in my entire life and the chances of me getting to hear this story was very remote but it is for some reason that I do not understand – it feels like Gods Will that I should do something about it to make Karen smile!

Your help in this matter I am sure will be greatly appreciated by Karen Pollard and all her family who must be going thru hell. For me I want nothing other than to know that for once I actually did something for no real reason other than caring!!! !

Kindest Regards

DAVID LODGE”

David doesn’t know us. Yet he went out of his way to do something for Karen. David, I am exceedingly grateful. He also added that he knows someone who knows Victoria Wood well and that if the theatre couldn’t help he would try the other route. No worries if nothing comes of the second route David, we are touched by your sentiments beyond words.

Well, reading his letter and email reduced me to tears. Karen’s strength and determination have touched so many people. I take great solace from this. More about this later.

Back to Karen

Karen had real problems sleeping last night. They gave her a sleeping tablet which helped a bit. When I went in at 12pm she had eaten a quarter of her meal (roast chicken, stuffing, the works). The nurses were pleased.

She also looked different. She had had her nose tube removed as it was felt she was eating well enough that she didn’t need to be fed through her nose. Her bowel management system had also been removed and she had undergone 2 hours of physio. On the first day, she could only manage 10 minutes.

We found out today that one of the fantastic consultants on the Intensive Care Unit had asked that she be moved to the Stroke Rehab ward instead of the Orthopedic Ward. It was felt that she would gain more from her being where she would be taxed (from a stroke perspective) with the orthopedic people visiting, than being on the orthopedic ward being visited by the stroke people. This seems right to me.

The move would have happened today had they had a bed spare on the stroke ward. Alas they didn’t. Actually I take that back. The fact she is well enough to move to a normal ward is good enough for us. She couldn’t get better care than where she is at the moment (one nurse to one patient, and fantastic nurses at that).

Maybe tomorrow for Ward 3.

Knowing that kp was moving off ICU, I asked to see one of the consultants for an update on kp’s condition. She was VERY pleased with Karen’s progress and she said the one thing we wanted to hear. Karen is no longer critical and she “would be VERY surprised if Karen DIDN’T pull through this”. For the first time, we have officially heard that the odds are in kp’s favour. I would go further than that and say Karen’s life is no longer in danger and that she now has to concentrate in probably the hardest battle of all – rehabilitation.

This is a big weight off the family’s minds. We have kind of felt this anyway for the last few days, but to hear it officially from the same lady who gave Karen a 5% chance of pulling through the first few days carries a great deal of weight. Thanks CONSULTANT (name withheld at request of hospital) – for your honesty and frankness. We appreciated it when we were told the bad odds and we definately appreciate it now !!!

We then had a bit of sadness. The consultant (in the presence of Karen) was trying to get across to Karen how far she has come and she told Karen that we nearly lost her a couple of times in the first few days. Karen broke down at hearing this. Although I have told her similar things before (to illustrate how far she had come), she had never heard this from the professionals. Karen REALLY doesn’t understand how good a fight she has put up and how wonderful she is. The consultant was great and she comforted Karen. Marie and I added our additional support.

This played on Karen’s mind for the rest of the day, but I will return to this later.

I grabbed the consultant privately to confirm that Karen was out of danger. I didn’t want to ask this in front of Karen (perhaps this was wrong), but I was chuffed to hear the news that I mentioned earlier.

After the consultant left, one of the paramedics (who helped get Karen out of the car), stopped by to see how Karen was. This is the first time Karen had met Jayne since the accident and the first time Jayne had seen Karen since she was out of danger. We had a few more tears as Jayne related some of the facts of the accident to Karen. She told Karen how brave she was and how she had been cursing the firemen, because they couldn’t decide the best way to cut her out.

Karen :- “Why is it taking so long to get me out of here. I bet there is a man behind this decision”

When all of these visitors had gone, I started reading out last night’s blog comments (and text messages) to Karen, leaving the “Acorn Antiques” things till the end. Karen loves hearing the messages of support.

dp:- Now, I have something special to show you.

I revealed the “Acorn Antiques” program and explained its origin.

I then read out the letter (detailing the Acorn Antiques show) and email to Karen. She was VERY moved by it and got very upset. I think she couldn’t believe that someone would do this for her. This constantly amazes me. I read out all the texts, blog comments etc…. And she just can’t believe that she is so well thought of. I keep thinking back to the thought that she obviously doesn’t understand how far she has come and how much so many people care about her.

Thanks David again for this. You have definately helped bring home how much feeling there is out there for Karen.

We have had many laughs today. Karen enjoyed seeing her brother-in-law David Gall today. And she had a good crack with him about “boring Dave”.

Tomorrow will probably see her being moved to Ward 3. Visiting Hours are 11am – 1pm, 4pm – 8pm. A lot of people have expressed an interest in visiting Karen and I know she will love to see you all, but don’t visit just yet in case she hasn’t been moved to Ward 3. I will post further details ASAP and I expect we will put in place some system to ensure that too many visitors don’t show up at the same time.

Another great day Karen. Some Tears, Some Laughter. But another strong step in the right direction.

dp
(Proud as ever)