Good Night’s Sleep.

More positive and talkative kp today I am pleased to be able to report. Back to the usual banter.

Her head was hurting and when I checked the head dressing, it was out of position and very sloughy. So I changed the dressing and made a right pig’s ear of it. Took twice as long as it should have because I hadn’t got all the key stuff to hand. Preparation is the key and I thought dressing packs came with sterile water, but they didn’t. But we got there in the end.

Breakfast consisted of 2 weetabix and she probably had about 1/2 a weetabix.

Bedbath uneventful.

The big news was the morning physio session. We were told they were going to get kp sitting up by herself on the bed with her legs dangling off. kp was very anxious about this and had woken up at 5am worrying about how they were going to do it.

First, they shifted her to a physio bench with a PAT slide. Then one physio gradually lifted her back, while the other 2 held her hips and legs in place. A huge smile came across her face as she started to be sat up and she came out with:-

kp:- wahey !

The smile stayed all the way until she was sitting bolt upright with the head physio supporting her back. Various exercises were then done to get kp to get her balance. They hurt at first, but after a couple of physio tweaks, they were sorted. She had to pat another physio on the back whilst retaining her balance. At first, she was being supported, but by the end of the session, kp was pretty much maintaining her sat up position herself and doing the maneuvre solo. She was rightly well pleased with herself as was the physio. It also didn’t hurt her cocchyx, but instead her bones in her arse (sorry Karen, bottom) were hurting.

Big Success and something which kp is pleased she has tackled and achieved.

Another sleep-filled afternoon for Karen. The physio came in to do 5 minutes of arm work and plans to do another sitty-up day on Tuesday.

Marie and kp had a few laughs this afternoon while she was awake. At one point, kp was adjusting the position of her bed and went all the way on her back. Marie asked what she was doing and kp said she didn’t know. Marie started laughing, so did kp.

At another point, Marie was doing passive exercises on kp’s arm and kp started rubbing Marie’s finger. Marie started looking intently at her own finger to see what the problem was, couldn’t see anything so asked kp what she was doing.

kp:- I thought I saw a bump ?

There was nothing there. Marie laughed because she was looking so hard at her own finger for something wrong, and kp laughed because she had made Marie look.

Probably not funny when read back in the blog, but funny at the time and when relayed to me.

Generally an uneventful evening. Few dressings changed, catheter issues, and a nurse making kp smile by putting Hawaiin shorts on with her pinny tucked in, leaving the flap out at the back. Very funny at the time, and carried on being funny as she did most of her shift in it. It’s hard asking people about catheter issues when all you can focus on is Hawaiian shorts and a bunny tail flap. Lovely nurses/staff on Ward 22. In fact, Gateshead is one hell of a hospital. I know we had our problems in Ward 3, but this wasn’t down to the quality of the staff (with one exception), it was down to the numbers to patient ration for such a chronic-illness ward.

At 6.45pm :-

kp:- Is it bedtime yet ?

I laughed. She has in her mind that her bedtime is 7pm now. It does tend to work out that by then she is knackered.

dp:- It’s bedtime when you want it to be love ?!

She wanted to go to sleep. Some final reassurance from the nurse that the catheter was working fine, and she went to sleep.