I didn’t go in until 9.30am allowing kp to fend for herself on the breakfast front. It was possibly not the best idea as she overturned her bowl of rice crispies. The nurses were clearing the debris away as I arrived and rather than put kp through bed moves twice, we went straight into the bath. Just as enjoyable as the first one.

No sooner out of the bath we were in the wheelchair heading outside for some fresh air and some exercises. kp did her head moves, her leg stretches, and I tried to loosen her left arm up a bit as it was very stiff, but she doesn’t like me doing it because one wrong move and it’s very painful. So I yanked it around a bit, and then we just enjoyed the fresh, but humid air. Then Marie and Michelle arrived for the afternoon shift.

We had a surprise visitor of Debs who had been picking some Strawberries and just popped in to drop them off. This got some funny looks from the staff, as they don’t like visitors before 2pm without prior arrangement and we had 3 extra. The nurse kindly let us off this one time, but we will make an effort to ensure there is only 1 person attending Karen outside of visiting hours. The strawberries were beautiful and it was great to see Debs. I feel sure they will have had an afternoon of good crack.

kp hardly slept all afternoon because she was having so much fun with Marie and Michelle. They helped take her mind of her pending operation tomorrow which she had been getting anxious about.

Lots of belly laughs all round. Marie had been coordinating a kp move up the bed with Michelle. One person grabs the sheets on one side of kp and the other grabs the other side’s sheets and together you pull the sheets up the bed. This needs to be coordinated or it doesn’t work, so of course, we use the usual “On 3, 1……….2………..3″ and then you both move together.

Well, Marie had problems with this tonight and in fact, sporadically has had such problems in the past. The key to doing a move with Marie is knowing that 3 isn’t always 3. It’s sometimes 1 or 2.

Needless to say, Marie called :-

Marie :- “1…………….”
Marie tries to pull kp up the bed and whilst she tries carries on counting
Marie :- “2………3….”

Michelle started laughing, Marie was in stitches and kp did some good belly laughs.

kp was knackered tonight after all the hilarity and didn’t feel up to an evening trip for some fresh air.

By 6.20pm she was fast asleep.

Premed for the op is about 7.30am, and she goes from the ward at 8.15am. Fingers crossed she isn’t in too much pain when she comes out.

Bit confused. Just had a call from Marie. She was present when the anaesthetist came round to talk to Karen. One of the things she said in passing, was that Karen’s operation tomorrow was going to be quite an extensive one. Marie didn’t want to ask her what she meant by that while Karen was present, as she is anxious enough.

Our understanding was is was just going to be a bit of a cleanout of an infected wound.

We are both aware that kp has MRSA in the infected wound and that it can be fatal if it gets in the bloodstream. Had a telephone conversation just now with the Sister and she has put my mind at risk. It IS just a cleanout and a removal of the abscess. Very little risk of MRSA getting into bloodstream as they will put AntiBiotic Beads (!?) in the wound. So, I feel better.