kp had a good night’s sleep and ate a hearty breakfast.

I told kp about her extra special surprise today. She was over the moon. Wendy (Cilla in Coronation Street) is going to arrange for kp to spend the day at Granada Studios AND to be an extra in one of the scenes.

Well, kp had the biggest of smiles. She couldn’t believe it at first and kept saying “NO!”, “Noooo!”.

kp (smiling) :- I could be sat in Roy’s Rolls having a cup of tea in the background.
dp :- Aye, or you could be in the Snug at the Rover’s
kp :- I could buy a packet of mints off Rita at the Kabin.

And this just carried on for ages. We were laughing our heads off.

Thanks for that Wendy !!! It’s something else to aim for !

Student Doctor
We had a visit from a student doctor who wanted to ask kp loads of questions about the effect of the stroke. I think he found kp’s experience interesting and he also made kp think a bit about the kind of question we should be asking the consultants, specifically, what is the likelihood of kp regaining full use of her arm ?! It’s the kind of question, you want to ask, but don’t want to ask (if that makes sense). I suspect she will now ask the question.

Physio
She had an excellent physio session. Lots of pain, but lots of gain in the form of free-er movement in her arm and legs.

The Chair
kp has had problems with this bedchair for a while and struggles to stay the full hour in it. Well, today, we realised that there was another configuration of the chair which means kp has a better sitting position. She stayed a full hour and 20 mins in the chair with less aches and pains. It will be interesting to see how this pans out and if in fact, it does allow kp to stay longer in it.

Whilst in the chair, Jane and I wheeled kp down to the coffee shop which has a nice outside quadrangle and we enjoyed a leisurely cup of tea/coffee.

Occupational Therapist (OT)
The occupational therapist spent 5/10 mins with kp today and was basically assessing kp’s ability to feel things in her left hand. She got a cup of hot and cold water and dipped a spoon in it and saw if kp recognised hot or cold on different parts of her arm. Mixed Success with this.

At some moments, she didn’t even know she was applying the spoon.

She got kp to close her eyes and put a pen in her hands and asked her to recognise what it was. She couldn’t.

OT :- Is it rough or smooth ?
kp :- Smooth

OT :- Is it hard or soft ?
kp:- Soft

When she opened her eyes she was a bit disappointed she hadn’t got it right.

It’s early days. A few weeks ago the same tests on her legs would have met with limited success as well. So there is a lot of hope here.

I left Jane and kp with bottles of champagne and orange juice, strawberries and extra thick double cream. They were going to have a cracking afternoon watching Wimbledon.

kp had a good afternoon with Jane Burns watching the tennis at Wimbledon. Strawberries and Cream (no champagne yet, didn’t feel up to it).

Before I forget, there is something I should have put in this morning’s blog relating to the physio. The physio has started to try and get kp to try and move on to her side by herself. She can’t do it yet, but he has broken it into about 5 moves. She can do some of them herself, like lift her knees in the air, turn her head, move her arm, but she can’t do the final move of the hips yet. When she cracks this, she will be laughing and less stressed. There seems to be very few people who can actually move her into a comfortable position. And if you are in a painful position for too long, it can be quite frustrating.

Weeping Wounds
One of the wounds on the back, which had been fine until today, has started weeping. It was dressed tonight along with her head wound, and a couple of front wounds. I don’t know if the heat encourages the weeping, but all the wounds seemed to come out in sympathy with each other today.

Comfy Position then Sleep
When i arrived tonight, I immediately got kp comfy, and she went straight to snooze. She was knackered. But before she had time to sleep, Dave and Yvonne arrived. She snoozed for a bit, but then woke up for some good banter. kp was belly laughing at the fact that when she had mentioned earlier she felt sick, Dave had bolted straight for the door saying “Oh hell”.

I don’t think Dave is too compatible with hospitals. Yvonne went on to say that if she was ill in hospital, he’d be hopeless and would probably only come in the hospital to visit if he could plane the doors or something (he is a carpenter by trade).

kp had a good laugh at this.