Generally a good week.

I had the usual “going back to work after a week’s holiday” blues and corresponding backlog of work. It took me until Friday to really get anywhere near on top, but it was an enjoyably week for me overall, but a week full of 8am to 6.30pm kind of hours which is fine for me, but leaves kp on her own for a long time.

On the one hand, I think Karen was pleased to have some time on her own even though she had enjoyed the family holiday, but she also misses company. It’s a strange balancing act. She has caught up with the blog and is now staying exactly a year behind. So, it’s good to hear from her what happened a year ago today and get her take on it. I am really glad I did the blog. I have regrets that I didn’t do more from the first 2 weeks when she was at death’s door. I remember asking if I could take some video footage when she was the size of the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters, but the intensive care staff never came back to me and I never chased it up. But it’s a real gap in kp’s understanding of how awful things were. But I think she has heard it from so many family members she gets some idea.

One of the things that she read a few weeks ago, was about her work colleagues doing a dvd for her of them acting out a sketch at their workplace. The acting was brilliantly awful and the whole thing was as funny as hell. I showed this to kp at the time and she loved it, but now she has zero recollection of it. I wanted to reshow it to her, but for some reason she keeps saying she doesn’t want to see it. I feel sure this is because it reminds her of the good laughs she used to have with her workmates and it will remind her of what she is missing at the moment in the way of some normality of life. Maybe I will find out in a year what her true thoughts are.

Karen has started doing her own tablets. I always used to put a month’s supply into medicine boxes in advance so she could just pick Tuesday Morning, Lunch, Afternoon or “Before Bed” tablets as appropriate. She has had to be reminded a few times about what she should take at each part of the day, but generally she has done ok. She can’t do the morphine patches herself as these are too fiddly and forgetting one of these would have serious consequences on her mood (as demonstrated on the holiday). One of the things I have been noticing when Karen does the tablets is that she takes a tablet out of a foil-sealed plastic thing (with 20 tablets in for example), but that she does it in no order. So, whereas most people would go from left to right, top to bottom (or similar), kp has been doing slapdash. When questioned, she thought she was doing it in order

Not only is it all to pot, she is going on to a second foil-sealed plastic thing before all the tablets are used up, leaving it very confusing for her which tablets are taken out of the box

Here is a picture of what I mean……..

She has also been doing much more around the house this week. She made a full roast meal on the night Marie was here (Wed). She did EVERYTHING herself (apart from carve the chicken (which I used to do anyway)). She started at 4.30pm (according to Marie) and it wasn’t ready until 8.30pm but she was DEAD proud of herself. The veg chopping is what took her ages. Nice one kp !!!

Marie wasn’t feeling too well, so kp and I did the washing up. (Marie ALWAYS washes up while kp and I fag it). I have explained numerous times to Karen how to put the steamer away. It is supposed to look like this (3 steamer compartments inside each other)…..

But, she still can’t understand how to get them in the right order. The result (amusingly) is………..

The following day, she emptied the dishwasher while I was at work. It’s only a minor thing, but is another example of how her “spacial awareness” isn’t 100%. The cutlery holder is supposed to be vertical (in the photo), whereas she put it back horizontal meaning we can’t get as many dishes in. It’s only minor, but it’s these little things that flag up that there is still improvement to be made in these areas.

She knows what it should be like, but can’t work out how to correct it !?!

Marie took kp to Physio on Thursday. kp has had big problems with her bras this week. It’s safe to say she hasn’t mastered them at all. She has bought 2 front-fastening bras. One from Sadie the bra lady and the other from figleaves.com (Thanks to Helen and Susa for pointing this shop out). The Sadie one is a better one for her to do as it has 3 poppets, whereas the fig leaves one has 6 (!!!!) of the usual hook things. She can manage the poppets (it takes time though), but the hooks are near impossible. The fastening isn’t where the problem lies though !! She can get her left arm into the arm correctly, but then she has to fling her shoulder so it swoops around and she catches the other end of the bra with her right hand and she brings it round the front. This is where it goes wrong. During the fling, the bra is invariably inside out or upside down and she simply can’t work out (in her head) how to correct it. So, most of this week has been bra-less. Marie assisted for physio.

I got a bit of a rollocking this week. My mind was so much on work that I didn’t ask enough questions about physio. I did ask how it went and she told me, but I was supposed to get more detail.

kp:- You don’t seem as interested in me anymore

dp:- I am love ! What dya mean ?

kp:- Before, you’d always ask exactly what happened at physio and want to know all the moves etc, but now you don’t seem as interested.
I was banged to rights. She was right. I told her “I would work on it“.

Karen has pretty much cooked all the teas this week, which is great for me and rewarding for her, so we are both pleased about that.

Friday saw the arrival of Chris (Karen’s nephew), Laura (Chris’s fiance) and Ethan. Karen was kept busy with them all afternoon which allowed me to go for a pint with the lads from work, which was a nice change. If they hadn’t been here most of the afternoon, kp would have missed the lack of company for so long, so that worked out quite well.
Yesterday (Saturday) saw the arrival of Jane and Ronnie who were up for the weekend. Jane had teased us earlier in the week with her story of how she had been arrested by the police for harassment of one of her tenants. She had been kept in a cell for 4 hours and released on bail. We were in stitches when we heard the gist of it over the phone, but to hear the whole thing in person with all the gory detail was fantastic and it kept us amused for hours. Jane is a model citizen but at the same time, she doesn’t stand any sh+t. Anyway, she is definately in the right and the 3 complaints she has with the Police Commission over her manhandling should be upheld !!! At one point, they restrained her with 3 sets of handcuffs (one to each hand, and then a pair over her 2 hands), and one of the policeman (she called “Blondie”), put too much pressure on her arms and she has some horrific bruises.

So, a cracking Saturday hearing all about this !!! It is great to look at Karen when she is howling with laughter – it really is.

Pop Idol and a Chinese saw the Saturday night out.

Jane and Ronnie had a great night’s sleep whereas kp and I were up most of the night Jane’s snoring rocking the house foundations had nothing to do with the bad sleep (nothing at all). Nada. Zip. Absolutely nothing !

Today, we treated Jane and Ronnie to Sunday lunch at “The Pump House” (cracking restaurant in Durham). As always, the food was great and we had a lovely time. Here are the girls ….. inside ……..

and outside …..

 

Snoozes were the order of the afternoon and so concludes this week.