Karen is on the up and up !!! On a scale of 0/10, she has rated herself a 4 (maybe 5). Wahey !! This might not be a 10, but it’s much improved over the 0 of last week. Today, it was just the usual gibberish that all women come out with today and not the gibberish of the “kidnapping” variety i.e.

kp:- Don’t be opening my mail ! (when I tried to open her mail to make it easier for her to read it)

dp:- Sorry

kp:- It would be easier if you opened it.

Grrrr ?!?!?!

She has worked really hard today at the new routine. She got up at 9.30am (good for kp). She didn’t take the usual 10 minutes coaxing either ! Today she has

• done her exercises
• went into Sainsburys and picked my suit up from the dry cleaners (while I waited outside in the car)
• walked the dogs (I didn’t do anything apart from hurrying her along as we came back when she was crossing the road and a car was coming). She was fine and would have made it no probs, but Elsa was 3 feet behind her !
• Fastened her own bra (this is a first). I got it round her, but she fastened it (front fastener). Next challenge is the whole thing.
• Went to Physio

Physio consisted of the lady loosening kp’s left hand. As she doesn’t have full use of it, it gets stiffer than her right.

She then worked on getting kp to try and move her thumb in, and then clench a fist. I wasn’t keen on kp being able to make a fist, but apparently it is good therapy.

It finished with a machine that tested Karen’s strength in her hands. When she did it with her right hand, it scored 0.4. When she did it with her left, initially, it didn’t move, but the physio has found with Karen, that repeated guidance gets the hand to learn the maneuvre and by the end, she had managed 0.1. So in a nutshell her left hand is 4x weaker than her right. The idea is than in a month’s time, this will be remeasured to gauge the improvement.

We walked the dogs when we got back or I should say Karen walked the dogs. I was there for backup only.

So a lot of hard work by kp today, and she feels absolutely knackered. I do hope she can last until bedtime without a snooze as she may get her first full night’s sleep. All in all, a cracking day !