First week back at work for me.

My big fear, going back to work, would be “how would Karen cope on her own ?”. I wasn’t too worried about the physical aspects of coping, like making a cup of tea, getting her bra on etc….more about the loneliness she would face after having my company 24/7 since the accident. This would give her time to reflect on her situation and if she couldn’t handle it, it would be hard for me to leave work.

But, as the week would have it, she didn’t get a moment to reflect as Abbie and Adele were stayed the week.

My first week back at work was great. I am back at the firm I used to work at back in January of last year. I was made to feel very welcome by all “the lads” and really enjoyed it, despite not knowing whether I was coming or going at times. This will sound bad, but it was nice to have a different focus. For the last 15 months, my life has been totally focussed on Karen – nothing else mattered, but now something else does matter. Granted, not as much as Karen, but it still gives me something else to put my teeth into and it is a good feeling.

Neither Karen or I have had a chance to miss each other, me because of work, kp because of her company. But it was still great to see each other on a night time and grab the odd 5 minutes to ourselves.

Karen has been coping “ok” with the day to day routine. Out of the 4 days I was away, she got her bra on once correctly, one day she had to ask Adele and the other 2 she didn’t bother ‘cos it was so hard the first day. Mum has played Bridge with a lady who also can’t use her left arm and she asked her how she managed a bra. Apparently, you can take your brassieres into the local hospital, and they will get rid of the hook mechanism and replace them with velcro. What a good idea !!! We are going to look into this.

Most of the week has been a rainy week, so kp, Adele and Abbie have been amusing themselves in the house most of the time. On Friday, the weather was better and Karen decided to take them to Brewsters so Abbie could go in the “Play Area”. Karen can’t drive for various reasons and so I had told her not to let that be an issue and if she wanted to go somewhere, just to get a taxi. She can’t take the bus, because standing up for long periods knacks her.

We both thought this would be a breeze, but it turned out to be a pain in the arse. She tried a few local taxi firms and couldn’t get a taxi until tomorrow !!!! Eventually she found one who said they would be there in 15 minutes, but they didn’t turn up for an hour. So, it left a sour taste in kp’s mouth.

In future, we will plan these out more.

Yesterday (Saturday), Abbie and Adele went to Beamish, which gave kp and I some “alone” time which we were VERY grateful for. We have enjoyed having them, but at the same time, we enjoy our time together. Whilst they were away, Michelle, Freddy and Marge arrived for a chinwag.

Here are Michelle, Abby and Freddy. I was wary of posting this photo as Freddy scares the sh1t out of me with his “look to camera”….Abby is camera-shy also….

It was a good afternoon overall….

Last night was our first night alone for a few weeks (or at least it feels like that)….

Today, we have really enjoyed each other’s company. kp was up at a half-decent time (9am) and we walked the dogs together. Regular Blog readers will know that one of Karen’ aims (post accident) and one of the indicators that she is getting back to “normal” as she calls it, is that she should be able to walk the dogs (on one of our normal walks). Our normal walks are about an hour long and cross styles, go up and down hills, cross rivers etc…..

Although today we didn’t make a full walk today, we conquered some hurdles which I found really impressive. Firstly, kp managed to scale a style pretty much on her own.

She also managed to walk about 30 yards up the hill we would normally go up…..

And chuck the toy for the dogs, albeit about as far as she could throw it before the accident, which was never too impressive, but impressive given her current situation….

We even met up with Brad Pitt on the walk. He was quite at ease with Elsa and Bonnie………

Once back from the walk, we enjoyed bacon sarnies and then kp went straight to bed – absolutely cream crackered.

Well done love – I told her how impressed I was !!! Style, Uphill walking and Throwing toy – a real bonus. She is doing so well. This next week, she will be on her own MUCH more – fingers crossed !