A day of pain and waiting and painful waiting.

When I arrived, kp explained she had had a painful night with a burning sensation in both her legs. She had been knocked down to a 50mg Fentanyl Patch from a 75mg Fentanyl Patch but she was feeling the pain come through. They couldn’t give her anything but a sleeping tablet, which only helped for a few hours. We agreed we should see the doctor about this.

Whilst we were doing the bath routine, I was mulling over tomorrow (kp’s birthday). It’s a very busy day as we have an appointment at home with a Professor chappie regarding kp’s condition, Ronnie is coming mid-afternoon and we have to be in Middlesbrough for 6pm for the birthday meal. I had worked out I would have to get up about 5.30am to get everything done. It suddenly dawned on me, why don’t we go home after physio today. That would give me an extra time tomorrow to get everything done.

So, we put in motion the plan to get home today. Knowing how inefficient the hospital pharmacy is (after our previous weeks’ experiences), we asked for kp’s drugs on the way to the bath (about 10:15am). We had also pre-empted the rushed day tomorrow last weekend and had asked for the drugs on Monday to give them 4 days notice. So we felt we had all angles covered.

Bath over, we went to enjoy some fresh air, before coming back for physio.

Today, kp tried walking with a stick.

The main man went through with her how to do it :-

But kp couldn’t get the hang of it on the first day :-

Normally her right foot stride is better than her left foot stride. But when she walked with the stick (in her right hand), her left stride was excellent, but the right foot just came level with the left each time. It reminded me of a chap I was in the Royal Air Force with, who used to march swinging his left arm forward at the same time as his left leg. She just couldn’t quite get the rhythm.

But, as the main man said, it will come with time……

Physio over (2pm), we were ready to go home, apart from we needed our tablets.

They weren’t there. Well, we weren’t surprised, The nurses made some phone calls, and we waited, and waited…………..and waited…………

We have learned generally in the hospital not to stop doing things we want to do when we think things are going to happen imminently, so we went for a snooze. At 4pm, we were woken with the good news that our tablets had arrived………….Yay !!!!!!!!!!!!!

We checked them through to find Karen’s new prescription of codeine hadn’t been ordered. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So, the nurse made a few phone calls to get a “script” (prescription) for it sent to the pharmacy. She got the “script” but the doctor had forgot to sign it. More delay. At about 4.30pm it was signed and through the pneumatic chute system they have it was at the pharmacy. We waited, and waited and waited………………………

kp went for a lie-down and watched Countdown. I went to sit down by the chute system so I would hear when the prescription rattled through. I waited and waited………You get the idea. At about 7pm I gave up waiting and got up to go back to kp’s room. Just as I got to her room, one of the nurses had just got back from the pharmacy and had her codeine !

Yay !!!!!!!!!!

We got away straight away and went home with a slight detour to Sainsburys to get some weekend shopping. That’s it for today.

Pasta will be served shortly in the living room for Madame.

An “ok” night’s sleep. We got up twice in the middle of the night for a kp commode experience.

When she woke up at 10am ish she was in quite a bit of pain, and as stiff as a board. She is still on this 50mg patch and is really looking forward to going back on the 75mg Fentanyl patch tomorrow.

As the day progressed and she took her codeine, gabapentin and paracetamol, things eased up.

After breakfast we had a visit from a Professor (from the insurance company) who is assessing kp as to what would help her rehabilitation. He was very nice and gave her quite a thorough examination. Hopefully some productive things will come of his proposals.

kp went for a snooze for a couple of hours before it was time to get ready for the big night.

We tried on a whole set of new clothes she had bought at the Metro the other day. I hate trying on clothes myself, kp isn’t keen, so the combination of us both doing it (me helping kp to try them on) didn’t go down too well with either of us – especially when half of the clothes didn’t fit anyway. Grrrrrr!

But we had a combination that worked.

Off to the party. The party was great. We all had a good time. The kids were very well behaved and most importantly kp really enjoyed herself. I took some photos with “phonecam” but they didn’t come out too well.

For her dessert she ordered Banana Split. It came (without any banana in (I kid you not)), but with some sparklers and 3 waiters who sang “Happy Birthday”. We of course all joined in. One of the waiters must not have known kp’s name and sang “Happy Birthday Dear Sexy” in place. He’ll be singing Soprano from now on.

Here is a little video clip of just after the singing. Click Here.

Party over, Michelle ordered a minibus to take her and 4 others home. It arrived, and immediately got towed away by the police. (Unfit to be on the road). Jane, Ronnie, kp and I came back to Durham. As I write this, the “girls” are having a cup of tea outside having the biggest gossip 3 old schoolfriends can have !

Ronnie, Jane, kp and myself stayed up late last night – well, late for kp, and very late for me (12.30am). kp had been drinking tea and had 2 cups. The first 2 hours of sleep involved 3 commode trips. By the third one, I was a zombie. kp could sense this I think

The next commode trip (I have no idea what time it was), kp managed to get herself up and back to bed herself. I only caught the last bit when she returned to bed. I don’t think she found it too easy though and subsequent commode trips (and there was at least one), she needed my help.

So, safe to say, not the best of nights.

Jane and Ronnie were up early (8am & 9am respectively), and I followed shortly after and walked the dogs. kp got up about 11.30am. Jane did a fry up for her and me Ronnie did Hot Cross Buns for her and kp.

kp, Ronnie and Jane were due a trip into Durham to meet up with one of Ronnie’s friends, but after a trip to the loo, kp didn’t feel very well – very nauseous, so she opted to stay at home with me. We snoozed most of the afternoon, and kp is still snoozing now. Fingers crossed she is up for Pizza Night and X Factor.

When I got kp up she was feeling 100%, but put a brave face on to try and enjoy the night.

We had pizza with X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing and had a good night in the company of Jane and Ronnie. Jane was singing along to every X Factor contestant but with her innate inability to hit any correct note, it was a hard night for the rest of us.

She drove us mad with her stories of how light footed Tony and her are when they waltz in to the kitchen. Jane and Tony are big-boned people.

We had a good night.

The codeine kp has been taking for the sickness have made her really constipated, which have left a bit of a sour taste on the end of the evening.

She feels sick and needs the loo but can’t go, so has had to go to bed early

Hope she feels better tomorrow.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes people have left.

Having slept pretty much all of Saturday, I was concerned that kp would have a bad night last night, but quite the opposite. We only had one commode trip and both had a good night’s sleep.

When kp woke up, she didn’t feel as stiff as she had previously. She put this down to the new higher strength fentanyl patch. But, on the downside, she couldn’t see properly. This seemed to get better as the day went on.

We (vdfromboro, kp and I) had a cup of tea while we waited for Jane to finish off her beauty sleep. In the end, we couldn’t wait any longer for Jane to reach consciousness (kp needed the hairdryer), and I had to barge in to her room and wake the dead.

The girls left just in time for us to set off to lunch with my family (Mum, Dad, Sister, Brother-in-law, nephew and niece) at Sunderland. Sophie gave kp her birthday present …………

and at Karen’s request opened it for her.

We had a lovely meal, and kp made it up the stairs to the table without falling (JUST !). She thinks she lead with the wrong foot.

The kids were well behaved and enjoyed the party hats (napkins)….

And afterwards, Daddy gave them a spin in kp’s wheelchair….

On returning home, we both went for a few hours sleep. Lovely sleep. And then watched a bit of telly before going to sleep for the night.

Another good night. Only got up once about 3am.

Nice lie-in for kp while I walked the dogs. When I got back she wanted another hour. We didn’t have to be at the hospital until 1.45pm so no problem.

We had a nice breakfast before going back to the hospital.

Pretty much as soon as we had got settled in, kp was out for the count.

The weekend seemed to be a weekend of sleep and she was still tired. She kept questioning herself “Why am I so tired all the time ?”. You’re recovering from a near fatal accident, it’s normal. Not sure she was convinced, but a phonecall from one of the other accident victims reassured her that the least thing can be very tiring.

One day last week, kp asked where the Daniel O’Donnell Physio (DOD Physio) was as she hadn’t seen her for a few days.

kp:- Where’s X ?
Main Man :- She’s on holiday
kp:- She never asked me if it was ok to go on holiday. She may get a warning for that.

So, over the weekend, I had done my best to forget a hospital letter that looked semi-convincing. It was from “Paula R D Carron” (Personnel Manager), which I thought may be enough clue to give it away without being obvious. i.e. put the names the other way round, you have Carron Paula R D (Karen Pollard).

I gave this to the main man to slip in to the physio’s in-tray.

While we waited for physio, I started to get nervous that perhaps it was TOO convincing and I was keen to get physio over with to make sure there were no hard feelings.

For the first time, Karen walked to physio with her stick. On the way we passed the DOD physio.

kp:- Did you enjoy your holiday X ?
X :- Not really no

She was unusually abrupt. I was even more scared that she hadn’t realised it was a joke.

Once at physio, the main man started working on kp’s left arm/hand, and for the first 10 mins, the DOD physio was rushing round not talking to us at all. Very odd.

She kept nipping in to a cupboard and coming out empty handed. Whilst she was in the cupboard, I asked the main man “Does she know yet?”

It turns out she did know, and was reversing the joke on us. Well, part of us was relieved, part of us wondered if she had took offence. She didn’t know that we knew that she knew (sounds like a Friends episode).

After a certain cupboard trip, the DOD physio pretended to look at the hospital directory, and then dialled in a number.

DOD Physio :- Is that Personnel. I have received a letter………

At which point she burst out laughing.

She took it really well. She had been nipping to the cupboard so many times, because she was going to burst out laughing instead of maintaining her serious face.

We all had a good laugh about it. I fear reprisals, but perhaps they are deserved.

After the hand/arm loosening, the main man did some unexpected moves on kp similar to the other day, where kp hasn’t a clue where she is going. She did very well and didn’t fall over.

After that, it was time for the timed walk. In order to measure kp’s progress, the main man and I measured out a 10m stretch of the corridor TWICE. We measured it once with a 1m tape, and after the 5th meter, we had forgotten if we had counted 4m or 5m, so had to start again. We got it right second time.

The main man assured kp it wasn’t a RACE and she should walk her usual pace.

She walked the 10m in 35 seconds dead, taking 40 steps.

So, we now have a measure for improvement.

Marie arrived just before 3pm. We had a nice tea party with her. She is feeling a lot better, but still not 100%.

That’s it for today.

CLICK HERE to go to November’s Chapter