Another good night’s sleep for kp. It seems they have really cracked the pain and sickness medication and kp is able to consistently get a good sleep. Obviously now I have said that, she’ll have a stinker tonight. We’ll see !

The nurses came in to turn kp at 4am. Sometimes she wakes up, sometimes she doesn’t. Last Night, she woke up and ended having a really long chat with the nurses which she enjoyed (1 hour apparently).

Just before I got in, someone had had a heart attack on the ward and all the staff were rushing around (according to kp). They managed to revive the patient who when revived said “There is no need to shout” to the nurse who was shouting “Can you hear me X ?”.

Apparently the gentleman is well-liked and 2 of the nurses involved came in to kp’s room to have a good cry when it was felt they may not revive him. kp offered them wet wipes.

kp has been on really good form today. If she doesn’t eat a big dinner, I will be having words with her again. She has eaten 1/2 piece of toast, bowl of rice crispies, bowl of soup and bun and half a chicken sandwich, so she really needs a big meal tonight. Sorry if this is too much detail, but if I don’t record it, I forget it, and some of this blog has been quite useful a few days later.

Marie and I took kp outside today for some fresh air. It was lovely weather with a cooling wind. While we were out there, she was complaining that her eyesight had deteriotated today, so Marie and I did some tests. I held my hand over her left eye, and asked her what could she see, and she said she couldn’t even see Marie. This was of great concern !!

When we went back up to the ward we did some more tests. Same thing, I put my hand over her left eye, and asked her how many fingers Marie was holding up. She didn’t know.

Then Marie realised that I had my hand over the wrong eye. DOH !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her good eye is her left eye. The same tests with the hand over the right eye were fine !!

Although kp did still feel that her eyesight wasn’t as good. For now, we have put this down to watching Wimbledon for 5+ hours yesterday !

Lots of laughs this morning as well, especially when we were doing the bed to bedchair maneuver. It takes 5 of us to get her from the bed to the bedchair. kp had a good belly laugh when it came to Marie trying to get her leg on the bed (with her short legs) to pull kp over. The longer-legged nurses make it look so simple.

kp is feeling more up to visitors at the moment (now the sickness and pain are under control). So if you would like to visit Karen, please contact Marie on 01642-284812 or 07961-346149 to arrange a date/time. Visiting is 2pm – 7.30pm. Work Colleagues who can’t make those hours can come at other times, as long as we let the staff know the day before.

When I arrived tonight, the consultant was in with kp and she was asking him some of the questions we had drawn up for him.

Will I gain full mobility in my left arm and leg ?
He said yes. Personally, I am not so sure about the left arm. It’s very “dead” (for want of a better word). Although she can feel pain in it, she can’t feel light touches or even medium touches. And it never moves unless she is asked to move it and even then, she can only move her shoulder (slightly) and her thumb. Her fingers can do very slight movements on request. It sounds like I am being pessimistic, perhaps I am, but then anything else is a bonus. With the physio’s assistance, she could move her arm quite high so the consultant may be right.As for her leg, he didn’t see that being a problem.

When will I be out of hospital ?
3 months assuming nothing goes wrong. If you make exceptional progress and are ready in 2 months and can carry on treatment/physio at home, then we wouldn’t keep you in unnecessarily. Given that at one stage, we were told Xmas, this was GREAT to hear !

Will I be classed as disabled ?
No.

Will I walk with a hobble/limp ?
Probably

Will I be able to do the ironing/hoovering ?
Yes, and you should do this often. It is your duty to your husband.

Actually, I forgot to add that question in. But I feel sure that this is what the consultant would say !

Visitors
kp had 2 visitors today, Chris Jeffries from work (and Eileen) and Sam (a friend who was close to Lee, kp’s nephew). She thoroughly enjoyed catching on all the work gossip and hearing of Sam’s news after her year in France studying Law. She is supposed to be fluent in French, but when I said “Bonjour Sam”, she either didn’t hear or hasn’t picked any of the lingo up at all

Eating
kp has had lots of little things today and didn’t have a full meal. If she doesn’t have a full meal tomorrow, then I will be upping my persuasion. I’ll threaten to kiss her or something – that normally does the trick.

Concert Pianist
The consultant (when anwering the mobility question) said that kp wouldn’t be able to be a concert pianist. No big loss there. When Jane arrived for visiting, Marie was telling Jane what the consultant had said :-

Marie:- He said she won’t be able to be a, whats that name, Pianist !
(Pianist was pronounced by Marie as Penis)
Jane looked bemuzed and we then started on 5-10 mins of belly laughs with Jane having us in stitches about the fact that it was a shame kp wouldn’t be turning into a Penis. Jokes such as “You were a bit stiff in bed yesterday Karen weren’t you” were prevalent. I was tempted to say that the surgical stocking on her head was a bit like a foreskin, but I didn’t lower the tone to that level. Oops just done it !

kp was in absolute stitches. Generally today, she has been in the best form ever. She has been starting many conversations, where normally, she would just join in. It was my wife in all her glory.