I had a late arrival pass today and could arrive anywhere up until 12pm. I must have been hankering for brownie points as I arrived just before 10am

She was fast asleep. I took great delight in waking her up which took a while. I thought it best to get her straight to the loo. She was as stiff as a board from yesterday’s physio so the transfer was a bit slow.

As soon as Karen knew I was putting her on the commode, she must have psychologically prepared for a wee, and I literally had to throw her on the commode to get her on in time. No accident, but it was a close call.

She opted for a shower today which went fine.

We went out for some fresh air. Another glorious day. When will this summer end ?

After about an hour outside, we came back in for a snooze before physio. Before the snooze, I suggested the loo again. Again, immediately kp started thinking of the loo and it became an urgent matter again. Suffice to say, we didn’t quite make it.

Physio today was great. Lots of leg strengthening done in the lying position. As before, the main man works up to the main leg strengthening routine where he puts his weight on Karen’s left foot, and Karen has to keep him from falling into her. He always holds her knee presumably so that if she gave way, he could sense it and apply pressure to the knee to stop him falling on Karen.

Today, for the first time, he let go of her knee completely and was putting all his weight on Karen holding nothing back.

kp:- Have you put weight on (main man) ?

Lol !

She then went to sitting on the side of the bench and they brought in a raised platform. Karen had to put her left leg on the raised step, and try and stand up using just her left leg. I don’t think she was expected to make it, and her left leg gave way and she sat down. She tried again and the main man helped her stand.

So, if you can imagine, she had her left foot on the step, and her right foot on the floor. She had to step up with her right leg on to the step. This involves a lot more work by her left leg. She did this a few times. I wasn’t sure how much her left leg was doing. It looked like she was doing more of a jump with her right.

He then turned this around and got kp’s right foot on the step, and the left foot on the floor. This definately taxed kp’s left leg more. She did a few of these.

So, at this point, kp has her left foot on the floor, her right foot on the step. He asked Karen to lift her right foot off the step. She raised her right heel off the step, leaving her toes on, taking the weight.

Main Man :- ok, you have lifted your heel off, can you know lift your foot off ?

We all laughed including kp who had thought she could get away with a heel lift.

He then asked Karen to lift her right foot on to the other physios knee which was about 2 feet in the air. Well, I am damn sure she wasn’t expected to achieve this, but the attempt got kp having ALL her weight on her left leg. Karen’s left knee very rarely locks any more, so she did a REALLY good attempt without her knee locked which must really have been hard.

This over, it was time for a walk. No wheelchair in front of her today, and the main man DIDN’T position kp’s left foot at all, well hardly at all. He was just there to provide kp some balance so she could concentrate on the walk. The other physio stood on kp’s right lest she fall.

She did REALLY well !!!! I was very impressed. Her left foot was still going too close to the right at first.

Here is a picture of her walking out of the physio room :-

(To see an enlarged picture, click on it)

She then turned the corner and started walking up the corridor.

(To see an enlarged picture, click on it)

The T-shirt says it all !

The main man could see she was still putting her left foot too close to her right foot, and told her to do a certain something (I can’t recall what), and whatever he told her, it worked a treat and kp did a BEAUTIFUL step with her left foot perfect positioned. I found myself shouting out “well done”. Her next couple of steps went back to being too close, but the main man was pleased she had achieved this perfect step as he knows how he can get kp to correct it.

Physio over, we went outside to meet Michelle and had a cup of tea and lots of laugh with her, before going in to get her nightie on.

Just got a phonecall from Karen.

She had gone to the loo with Michelle and Michelle had suggested walking back to her bed. Karen agreed and walked the 10 steps back to her bed. Wahey !

Very impressive – wish I had been there to see it.