Well, today we were due to go to Adele’s but it wasn’t to be. Within an hour or so of getting up, kp felt very sickly and light-headed and had to lie down So, we abandoned those plans.

She has been in bed since about 2pm. I tried to wake her a few minutes ago, but she wasn’t having any of it. I’ll get her up on Tuesday

Very uneventful day

What a sleepy day. We had an awful night’s sleep, getting up for a cup of tea at 2am and 4am. kp went back to sleep until 12.30pm, getting up again about 10am for 10 mins for another cup of tea.

Pain-wise she is doing very well at the moment and mentally she is ok too. So, a good few days Today, she was off with the OT shopping (for clothes) in Durham.

She relayed an amusing incident when she returned. She was trying a new coat on and in the process of trying it on, she had beared her stomach, and her shirt had stayed up. Karen can’t feel this kind of thing any more, so was unaware of this. She asked the OT where the mirror was to see if the coat suited.

OT:- I don’t think you will be too impressed with what you see.

kp looked in the mirror and saw her stomach fully visible

I think she corrected it quite promptly.

On her return, she was “feeling like she had been shopping” and went straight to bed for a few hours.

Uneventful Day.

kp went to bed at about 11pm and got up at 12pm, but it was too early for her. Seriously. She was grumpy and it was clear that she hadn’t had enough sleep. At 1pm she went back to bed until 2.15pm when I had to get her up for physio.

Physio today was very different. The physio asked kp if there was anything she can’t do that she would like to do. kp listed a few things, such as eating with a knife and fork (currently, it’s just a fork), kneeling down (so she can garden), and gettting up from a fall (that’s my suggestion).

The physio decided to concentrate on the last two for today, and work on the other one next week. kp and I had tried this ourselves a month or so ago, but we got nowhere. I tried to get kp lying down on the living room floor, but we couldn’t even get her to kneeling – it was too painful. Her knees haven’t been bent over in such a way for nearly a year – so you can imagine the stretch it must be for her.

So, with the aim of getting kp lying (as if from a fall), she first had to get to being on all fours. kp started off sitting on the physio’s bench, which she lowered as low as possible. kp then had to get on to her knees which she did with the physio supporting her – there were LOTS of “ow”s. I would have aborted the maneuvre at the first “ow”, but she (physio) persisted. Once on her knees, she had to get on to all fours as if she was crawling.

She did this by placing her hands on the floor, palms down. No problem with the right, but the left couldn’t support her weight (strength wise), and it was painful to put it in such a situation. So, with more help, she got kp supported by her 2 knees and her right hand (a 3-legged Karen, much like Cleo at the moment), the physio supported her left arm (so the left hand didn’t have to take any weight).

This was a very painful/awkward position for kp. The next stage was to get Karen on to her left side and then to concentrate on getting kp up again. We got her on her left side and got her legs swung from underneath her until eventually she was sitting on the floor.

With the help of using the bench as a lifting aid with her right hand, she was able to get her knees underneath her so she was back in the kneeling position.

Then came the most painful and hardest bit of the whole thing, she had her right knee flexed and had to use her right leg to lift her bum on to the bench. Her right top part of the leg and hip were broken in the accident, so this is the side which experiences a lot of pain and BOY did we know it when she lifted her buttocks on to the bench.

“OW!” doesn’t do it justice !

The relief on kp’s face says it all !

With the lying debacle over, the physio concentrated on kp’s left arm. kp had worked out why it had been so painful for the past few weeks. She had put in place a new position for the left arm when it is doing nothing and it has 90% fixed the aches and pains of her left shoulder – a MAJOR breakthrough !!! She took great pleasure in sharing this info with the physio.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. OR the proof of how much she has cracked the pain is how far she can raise her left arm !!!

This may not seem too impressive, but it is a BIG improvement on a few weeks ago. We were all impressed by it.

With the arm exercises over, the physio finished off looking at kp’s wrist movement which she noticed was restricted. If you have your hand face down on your lap and then turn it over as far as you can, then this is the kind of movement the physio worked on. kp has no problem with her hand face down, but she has restricted movement turning it upward.

The physio demonstrated what kind of movement she was looking at achieving….

But kp couldn’t get there at the moment, so the physio gave kp’s wrist bones some painful massage to try and get them a bit looser. kp’s homework is to move her left wrist so her palm is open and then move it further with her right hand.

I can think of other exercises for kp’s wrist and palm but let’s not go there !

What a beautiful day today ! We were a little worried that kp would be worse for wear after yesterday’s physio, but she was “ok”

She was up at 8am (EIGHT, not a typo) and we enjoyed a beautiful breakfast out the front of the house. It was the perfect temperature and it was just so fresh and spring-like

Although kp had no aches and pains, her eyes were playing up a bit and she couldn’t seem to see properly. This happens every now and then and normally just goes away. She also couldn’t concentrate on anything (probably related, I suppose). When the mail arrived, I had to read it out a few times for her for it to be understood, ditto her emails. One of them she still didn’t understand after about 3 or 4 rereads, so I will try again tomorrow.

We had a lovely couple of hours before retiring for a snooze – loveliest of snoozes. In the afternoon we went over to Adele’s to pick up the kids to take them to Pizza Hut with Marie, Glenn and his son Kieran. We had a lovely meal at Pizza Hut.

The kids were well-ish behaved. Although Abby got a bit of a harsh word or two when she returned from the ice cream factory with a bowl of ice cream that would have fed all 9 of us. She was dripping ice cream wherever she walked. Louisa (2) got caught short for the loo and I have never seen a kid being handed over a table as quickly as Adele threw her at Glenn for a “wee”. By the time she got to the loo, I think there was nothing left !

A lovely day today. Glenn, Marie and Kieran are coming up tomorrow. We have to stay in all day while our boiler gets fixed, so that worked out quite well that they are coming up.

That’s it !

The plumbers arrived at 9.15am to fix our boiler. It’s 6.45pm and they are still hard at having taken no breaks !!!!

It feels to kp and I like it has been a hard day, as the dogs have had to be locked up with us for the whole day, which kp has found quite claustrophobic.

Generally, an uneventful day. Marie, Glenn and Kieran came over for the afternoon, which was nice. kp has been quizzing Glenn about different bathroom possibilities, Glenn being in the building trade. kp wants a new bathroom/shower setup and Glenn has been trying to explain to kp how to achieve a better setup. Unfortunately, kp found it VERY hard to take in the proposed layouts and couldn’t grasp where walls were moving and where doors were going. Another practical example of how the stroke has affected her.

It didn’t help when went and stood by the bathrooms. After the 4th or 5th pass of design #1, she had grasped it, but then we went on to another possible design. She is well confused now.

That’s it for today – as I say, very uneventful !

Funny night last night. We were both absolutely knackered after the plumbers’ visit. They didn’t go until 8.15pm ! We had tea and then were fast asleep by 9.15pm !

I got up at 1.30am for a couple of hours. kp hadn’t a clue I was up. kp got up at 4am and came back about 6am and I hadn’t a clue she was up.

Relaxing morning. We enjoyed a cup of tea outside – lovely weather. Here is Cleo fast asleep in the back yard.

Ronnie arrived at lunchtime – she is staying until Sunday. It was good to catch up with her. For the past 2 hours, kp and Ronnie have invaded MY space in the computer room and have been doing online dating trying to find Ronnie a fella. Boy, it’s been driving me CRAZY.

kp:- Oh, he looks nice.
Ronnie:- Yes, but he doesn’t want a smoker.

kp:- What about him ? He’s a football fan
Ronnie:- But he is a Chelsea supporter, I couldn’t be doing with that. They have to support boro

Ronnie:- He’s cute, but he only wants a 25-35 year old.

Ronnie:- Now, here’s one. He sounds lovely, but look at his photo, I am sure he is not 45, more like 55.

And on and on and on and on and on.

kp:- Eeeeee, isn’t this dating site good ?
dp:- Don’t you be getting ideas love !!!

Christ – They are still going on about it as I write this blog ! kp is now egging Ronnie on to ring some of them up.

Get me out of here !

Here is a photo I snapped. kp giving her usual “Don’t take a photo” look !