A Good Week Overall for kp this week.

First, thanks to Frank (from Azerbaijan) for coming forward to the “regular reader from Azerbaijan” query !! Karen and family were chuffed to bits that they knew who it was.

Much to my relief, Karen has really enjoyed her first week “on her own”. Marie came up and stayed one night (cooking tea for us, thanks Marie). But, apart from that, Karen has settled into a nice routine, consisting of

• Getting up about 10.30am
• Cup of Tea
• Do jobs around the house (general tidy)
• Exercises
• Sort Washing
• Dust
• Read Blog
• Water Plants
• Get Poo Up

This is taken verbatim from her own list that she drew up with me last Sunday.

She hasn’t been to the shop yet (on her own) and I know she is quite scared about this. But, as vdfromboro suggested, she should take it in stages – walk to the end of the drive first, then a bit further, then a bit further, before going the whole hog. Part of the problem is that there is a stretch of pavement between us and the shop that is just wide enough for one person to walk. But, I know she’ll crack it and will feel brilliant for doing it. Watch this space.

As well as the above list, she has been trying to sort taxis out to get her to her various appointments. We only have 1 taxi firm in Esh Winning. And when you ring them for a taxi, the conversation goes something like this….

kp:- Can I have a taxi for 2pm to take me to the hospital ?

Taxi Firm :- Sorry love, can you give us a day’s notice if you want a taxi ?

Another time Karen rang, she was greeted by a 10 year old lad, saying “Me dad’s not in it at the moment”

Grrrrrrrr ! So she has lost a lot of faith and confidence in Esh Winning taxis. Getting one from a bigger firm in Durham would cost an arm and a leg. Anyway, by the end of the week she had managed to book a taxi for this coming Monday when she has her first physio session since her last op. This will be her first trip out by herself. Heart in mouth time.

Another thing she has been doing is “thinking about tea” for when I get home for work. Each day, she has had something planned and one day she even cooked it. I DO love pasta when it has that certain crunch to it

This week, she needed to get her prescription for Tamazepam sorted. Karen has this thing she wears round her neck with a red button on it and if she falls, she need only push the button and the Home Care Warden comes round. We were told we could use them to get prescriptions. So, this week was the first test. Unfortunately, they have stopped doing this service, but did it for us this time as a one off.

Another challenge for Karen is to find a shop that sells front-fastening bras. She is really struggling with the bra issue. She can fling it round her back and try and fasten it at the front, but invariably one of the cups will be inside out and/or upside down and with the mental affect of the stroke affecting her “spacial awareness”, she can’t work out how to get the cup the right way round and even if she could, she doesn’t have enough hands to correct it.

So, she has been bra-less most of the week – not really a problem when she is housebound, but I don’t think she will be too keen with her baps juggling about in public.

Another thing she has been doing this week is reading the blog. She is REALLY enjoying reading it and has been howling at some of the funnies that we have come across. She is now upto August 12th last year and has been told (by me) that she can only read upto the day upto the same date of last year. So everyday, she can see how bad she was a year ago.

She had a few tears this week as well. On thursday, she had a visit from her work boss and Personnel. At the moment, they are taking her through a “is she fit enough to return to work procedure”. Every other time they have been, I have been there, but this time, of course, I was at work. According to Karen, they did the usual “How are you doing ?” spiel and she had a good chat with them. But then they started discussing the above mentioned procedure. Apparently, Karen will be visited soon by another Occupational Health person to discuss her situation, followed shortly by a visit from the work doctor who would assess if Karen will get fit enough to return to work. I, personally, don’t think she will, and I think they are thinking along the same lines, but they know how much Karen wants to return to work and they are stepping very carefully so as not to hurt her feelings. I don’t think it is the work, per se, she is missing, but more the camaraderie and friendship of her work colleagues.

Anyhoo, when they started discussing what might happen if she is NOT fit enough to return to work, they discussed her options…..

• Ill Health retirement
• Permanent Injury Benefit.

Karen didn’t like the sound of either of these “not returning to work” options and got quite upset. Normally, I would have been there to comfort her, but I think the bosses must have felt a little awkward. When they had calmed her down, they advised her that I should be there for subsequent visits. When they left, she had another good cry. I don’t think karen feels up to work at the moment anyway, but she doesn’t want to be stamped as “unfit to work” by some other party. I think it’s a door that she would like to keep open, but at the same time, she is happy not stepping throught it for now.
That’s about it for this week. So, generally a good week, a little sad one and funny one to end on.

Last night, we were outside having a fag (yes, we started again ). I have been encouraging Karen to use her left arm/hand as the smoking arm/hand. The idea being it is good physio for her hand to grasp and feel the fag (not that she can feel it). And good for her left arm to try and get the fag to her mouth. It’s more the mouth meeting the hand than the other way round, but she can do it !!!!

The sad thing is sometimes she will do the motion of hand to mouth and not realise the fag has dropped out of her hand and is on the floor. The other sad thing was she said………

kp:- Isn’t it good what I can do with my left arm now. Don’t you think that it’s nearly better ?

She is doing so well with her left arm/hand, but it still has a long way to go. I am pleased that she is pleased and I KNOW there is still improvement to come. I am stilling seeing SOME improvement on a weekly basis.

Funny one to end on. Same issue – fags. Karen was out throwing the toy for the dogs in the back garden. She was smoking a fag in her left arm/hand whilst throwing the toy with her right. On one of the throws, Elsa caught the toy and came running back to Karen, but with smoke coming from her hair. Karen had dropped the fag (unbeknownst to her) on Elsa and it was still going. Anyway, Elsa was totally oblivious to this and Karen rectified the situation