A cracking morning with a little bit of bad news.

Another good night’s sleep. The Diazepam seems to be doing the trick with only a little pain seeping through.

With sickness pretty much in control, kp enjoyed some weetabix, toast and a glass of freshly squeezed Orange Juice. We did a few physio exercises to loosen her left arm which gets stiff overnight.

The Sister and a nurse changed kp’s dressings and gave kp a nice bedbath and kp looked great. kp has a Pseudomonas infection in her right hip wound and E Coli in the blood stream but that’s on the way out.

Eye Surgeon
The eye surgeon visited kp today. He brought all the kit needed to check her eyes. Her left eye is spot on and has no problems at all. She could read out all the letters on the chart and the peripheral vision is fine also.

The bad news is her right eyesight isn’t as good. He pointed a light into both kp’s eyes and whereas the left pupil contracted when the light shone it, the right pupil actually got bigger.

When he tested the periphery vision on the right eye, it was clear kp had a much narrower field of view. She couldn’t see things that were low until they were directly in line with the eye. It’s as if the eye can only see up (if that makes sense). In fact, up and right. She tends to find it hard to see things from the left and bottom until she actually looks directly at them.

She could read parts of the eyechart with the right eye, but when it got to the 4th row down, she struggled. He anaesthetised both eyes and checked the pressure and they were both fine. So, no glaucoma.

He then put a drug in the eyes which makes the pupils dilate. 15 minutes later he returned and examined the back of kp’s eyes in detail. The upshot of the examination is that Karen has a damaged fibre optic nerve in her right eye. There is nothing that can be done about this, and although kp’s eyesight in the right eye won’t get any worse, it won’t get any better either

My first question to the Eye Man :-

dp:- How will this affect kp. Will she still be able to drive, watch TV, read and do the ironing ?

The eye man found this very funny and kp started laughing and pointing at the eye man because he kept laughing for ages. (The ironing joke is one kp has heard many times !)

The eye man said that she could still drive as the DVLA only require one good eye. Then he racked his brain for things she couldn’t do and he came up with :-

• Driving HGVs
• Getting a Pilot’s Licence

kp:- Is there anything else ?
dp:- You wouldn’t be too good at archery !

This tickled kp also. It’s amazing how she can laugh at such bad news.

There was nothing else that would be affected by the damaged Optic Nerve.

Visitor
Kathleen (work colleague) visited kp today, bringing with her some nice lotions for kp. kp enjoyed seeing Kathleen. These gifts couldn’t have been better timed because the physios came in moments later.

Pamper Session
kp had a fantastic physio session. She has struggled to stay the full hour in the chair. So, the physios had arranged for some things to keep her mind occupied and that she would enjoy to encourage a longer stint in the chair. They worked a treat and kp thoroughly enjoyed them.

Once in the chair, kp had her feet positioned in a bowl of water, and the lotions that Kathleen brought were used for a big pamper session. She loved it. Whilst one physio did the feet, another encouraged and helped kp to do her nails. All great things that help Karen get back to doing day-to-day things with her hands. I think the idea is to encourage the right arm/hand to remember how they work.

She was then given a nice leg massage, and washed her own face which she found very beneficial. She then put various lotions on her face. This physio session did her the world of good. I must say the physio team at Gateshead has been absolutely superb.

By the time they had finished, kp had been in the chair 1.5 hours ! She had a cracking pair of smooth red legs, soft feet, and a moisturised face. A real good combo of physio and pampering.

The Pain Man
The pain specialist came to see kp just as I was leaving. He had a good discussion with kp and kp felt confident that he could fix the pain. She is going to be given Antripoline, and then weaned off the morphine patches and the Diazepam.

That’s about it for this morning.