You’ve heard of Sweaty Betty. I was greeted this morning by Drenched Wench. I know, woman perspire, they don’t sweat. Let me tell you, Karen was soaked with sweat this morning. It was quite funny to see, because when I arrived she was fast asleep, but she must have gone to sleep with the headrest part of the bed quite upright, so this morning, she was all huddled up at the bottom of the headrest, presumably having slid down gradually all night until she was in a ball at the base.

kp:- Is it that time already ?
dp:- Not quite, but it’s nearly 10am.
kp:- I am a bit sweaty

A BIT !!!!!!!!!! I didn’t say anything.

First trip the loo. I helped get her off the bed. When she gets off the bed in the mornings, her left arm is VERY stiff and kind of thrusts into her stomach while she is getting up. In helping her get off the bed, I could feel her nightie was soaked. Poor kp.

Loo over, she went to clean her teeth while I went for the bath harness sling thing. She walks from the bed to the loo, and the loo to the sink now all the time (with someone being there to hold her hand). I have now got her to put her toothbrush in her left hand (with her right) while she pushes the paste on with her right hand. She is getting better all the time at this.

While I remember, her buttock wound is getting a lot better now. It is slowly closing up. At a push, you could get a knitting needle in there (size 8, not that I have ever knitted, ahem !), but fruit is out, you simply couldn’t push it in. You’d need to puree it first and pour !

Bath over, we had a cup of tea and some biscuits (for breakfast) and then went out for some fresh air. We had a while before lunch so we had a snooze. I had suggested I go back to the floor to snooze as I was sick of jumping up when the nurses walk in, but kp wanted my warmth, so I succumbed to her lovely comfy bed and a nice cuddle. If any other women out there would like some of my warmth in bed, please contact me. I am available most weekdays. In fact, weekends I probably wouldn’t be missed.

It was then time for physio. Physio today was great !

It started with the main man pulling a bench in front of kp and raising it high. He then helped kp get her left arm on top of the bench and then held her wrist down and proceeded to get kp to raise her fingers. At first, she needed helping, but then gradually she could do it more and more herself. He then got her to do the finger lifting while lifting the wrist, and again the more he helped the more she could do it herself.

These are exercises that we need to practice ourselves.

He then put a towel under her left hand (to reduce the friction of the hand on the table) and got her to push the towel away and back. kp’s natural inclination (due to the weakness in her left arm) is to use her whole body to move the arm. She moves back on the bench and her arm goes with her. This time, he put his finger on her back so she couldn’t move back or forward and encouraged her to flex her elbow etc…. She got a bit better at this as she did it more, but I wouldn’t say she cracked this one.

Her main weakness seems to be at the top of her arm.

An interesting thing happened today actually (outside of physio). I was dressing kp and putting a t-shirt on her. We have been taught to do the stroke side first (when things are going on) and then the other side which I did. But it must have been a tight t-shirt and I struggled getting her right arm into the t-shirt. Instinctively, kp raised her left arm to help me out. It was no help, but was AMAZING to see. When I asked her to do it again, she couldn’t. Marie saw a similar thing when kp was in intensive care.

I asked the main man about this today and apparently this is quite normal. There are certain chemicals in the body that are used to send signals to muscles/nerves. They work well the first time, but by the second time, the chemicals have been used up and there are less of them around so things get harder to do. Very interesting !

Back to physio.

Left arm exercises over, we now have some homework. In a nutshell, we have to practice what we did today. The more we tax the left arm, the more it will recover. It won’t ever be as strong as the right, but any functional use from it will be appreciated.

He then asked her to tap her left fingers from one side to the other and back again. I can’t remember if I have mentioned this before, but quite often kp’s left fingers go in to spasm. They move very quickly (out of her control). There’s a reason for this and it isn’t anything to worry about.

So………….the main man asks kp to tap her left fingers one by one from left to right and back again, a bit like you were waiting for someone and getting impatient.

kp tried to do what he had asked, but unfortunately the spasms kicked in. Here is some video showing you what followed (published with the kind permission of the main man). (Some of the spasms are TOO quick for my phone video camera, but you can hear the corresponding tap even though you can’t see it). We were all laughing at this. It is sad, but funny.

Hand Tapping

The main man then offered to do some steps with kp (something we had mentioned would be helpful). She jumped at it, and before long, we were at the hospital steps.

She took to the steps well. He got her to climb a step (right foot first), and then back down again. And then do the same thing but with left foot first. She did quite a bit of climbing one step and coming back down again, before he offered her the chance of going up a few steps. She jumped at it.

One by one, she took each step………….

The main man had thought she would walk a few steps. He even asked if she wanted to do any more after about 3 steps. She did 12 !!!!

Of course, then she had to come back down again.

The main man had offered her a choice of coming down on the left hand side or the right hand side. If she came down on the left hand side, he would have to put he left hand on the banister but it wouldn’t be able to grip much to support her.

She opted for the right hand side.

You’d think coming down would be easier, but it wasn’t and she nearly came a cropper on her first downward step. The main man was there to save the day. I had to put the phone camera down and go and stand in front of kp as she felt a bit wary of going downstairs.

I managed to get a shot of her last downward step………..

I was so proud of her. As soon as she got back to the room, she was on the phone to dad to tell him. They have offered to have us over Xmas, but the stairs were a concern. They aren’t now !

After telling dad, we had a lie-down (on her bed). I was out for the count, and apparently, whilst I was asleep, a nurse came in, gave kp her tablets and water and left. I didn’t hear a thing. Normally I jump up and pretend to be sitting on the side of the bed.

If the nurse asks, i will say I was concentrating on testing the softness of kp’s bed.