Upsetting Day today.

kp was up before me ! That’s a first ! And when I got up, she came back to bed until I had walked the dogs.

We had a busy morning ringing various associations, doctors, chemists, consultants. kp is due to have another operation to sew up her stomach muscles, and was going to be referred for hydrotherapy, so we chased both those issues with Sunderland Hospital.

At 3pm, the OT arrived to give Karen the results of the tests from last week.

It took about 15 minutes to get through the results and although there were no big surprises, by the end of it Karen was in tears

Karen was told the following :-

Her visual perception (how her brain perceives what is going on) is significantly impaired. Real life examples were given along the lines of

• not seeing all the food on her plate
• not seeing cars when she crosses roads
• not seeing cars or pedestrians if she was driving

She has a problem processing information. If she receives instructions, she has big problems taking them in and needs them broken down into single instructions. It also takes a long time to get the instructions into her brain. Real life examples were given such as the instructions for the coat hanger which she couldn’t take in from last week’s test. If she receives a phonecall with lots of information, she wouldn’t be able to relay it all back to someone (something we know to be the case).

Her sensory motor skills are not what they were with Karen taking a lot more time to do a simple task than she would have otherwise have done.

On the good side, her memory is still ok.

The OT went on to say that these tests mean she would not be allowed to drive a car at the moment and that she shouldn’t go outside (crossing roads) on her own, she also mentioned she shouldn’t be even thinking about going back to work at the moment, and added that visits from her work aren’t appropriate given that she shouldn’t be making big decisions at the present time.

All of this hits kp hard. I asked for a copy of the results and could see that quite a few of the tests were marked as “severely impaired”.

kp feels like she is psychologically being “beaten up” by these results. NOTHING AGAINST the OT here !! She understands that she needs to see where she is weak so she can work on it, but she still feels like she is being roughed up.

She made reference (again) to the fact that work are visiting her to see how they can help her get back to work but that her real state at the moment isn’t anywhere near that.

From the outside, even to family and friends, kp appears to be the old kp. But, as the OT said, if kp is out of a familiar environment, she would struggle to cope with it, giving the example of a trip to the Metro Centre. kp would struggle to find a shop, and when she got to the shop, she would struggle to find the item she was looking for. When the OT said this, kp rememebered a situation from her Dalton Park (her trip with vdfromboro), where vd knew where they were, but kp was lost in the midst of all the shops.

So, the plan ………….

Next week, the OT is going to take kp shopping, but unlike “hubby” who would lead the expedition, kp has to be the decision maker, she has to pick a car park space for the OT to park in, remember it, remember the car they drove in (the OT’s), remember to pay for a ticket, etc etc etc….It should be really good for kp. The only way kp is going to get better is to tax her brain.

When the OT had gone, kp went straight to bed.

kp:- I need to get out of here.

So, not a good day today. She has decided not to go to court tomorrow – thanks Mum for your advice on this. I think it is for the best that she doesn’t go. I can report back all she needs to know.

kp is up from her sleep as I type this and is about to make a chicken bake (with my help of course).

That’s it for today..

PS – kp received a blog comment from “Mandy” the other day. She doesn’t know which Mandy this is. Mandy, please could you leave another blog comment saying which Mandy you are. Thanks