Driving Assessment Day

Not what we had hoped for.

Karen came in a taxi to meet me at work. We went in ITPS toilets to put her bra on, because she couldn’t get it on.

She had been very flustered getting ready for the taxi. Things hadn’t gone to plan.

The driving centre was very impressive and the staff superb. kp had been VERY anxious for the last day or so, but they made her at ease.

The afternoon started with about an hour’s worth of assessment, maybe even 90 mins. There were loads of tests to see if certain moves were painful (looking in the mirror, getting in the car type of moves). But the majority of the tests were to assess the impact of her stroke on driving.

One of the tests was the lady made 5 signs with her hands (salute, fist, turning a key, wave and another (which I have forgot)). kp had to do the signs back to her. She only got 3.

Another test was she showed Karen a blank piece of paper which had 3 cubes on (next to each other).

kp had to guess how many cubes there were. She guessed correctly.

Then they got more complex, and she didn’t get ANY more right. It was very sad to see.

Here is an example. Take the top left set of cubes. The lady would ask how many cubes there were. Karen would think about it for a while and say 12. She couldn’t picture the 3 dimensional aspect of the diagram. There are, of course, 8.

The lady explained that this was a problem with spatial awareness. Karen asked what does this have to do with driving. The lady went on to explain that it means Karen finds it hard to understand things she sees in 3 dimensions. She asked Karen if she had problems getting her clothes on. Of course, she does. She suggested that Karen might struggle with getting her clothes the right way round. She had hit the nail on the head. Karen can not (for the life of her), work out how to get a blouse the right way round. If an arm is inside out, kp can’t work out how to correct it.

Interesting how the lady could tell this from this simple test.

She then showed Karen a series of sheets which had 2 squares on. Each pair of squares had a dot in it. One of the squares had a dot bang in the middle, the other had a dot that was a little bit off centre. kp had to identify the square where the dot was bang in the middle. She got about 3 out of 8 of these, whereas normally people would get 7 out of 8. The other thing that was obvious is that it took Karen a long while to work it out. I was sitting behind her and watching over her shoulder,  and I could tell instantly, which was the one with the dot in the centre. Although I did get one wrong.

What did this have to do with driving. Well, when we went out on the driving circuit, we found out.

There was a driving circuit behind the centre and Karen had to drive around as directed by the driving instructor. He was dead canny. He only had 1 eye and 1 arm, so he was a good example of how you can still drive with disabilities.

They didn’t really want me to go with her, but Karen insisted.

What was clear when kp drove is that she drove very much to the right of the track. It was later explained that her left side inattention meant she was unsure what was to the left, so played it safe and drove to the right. Obviously on the roads, this can be dangerous. We clipped a few kerbs along the way, but the circuit was that tight, I think most drivers would have clipped the odd kerb.

The upshot of the day was that they were concerned about Karen’s line on the road. This possibly could be fixed with lessons, but the driving instructor said that this tended to be one of the things that could see only slight improvement. But we wouldn’t know unless we tried.

After the tests, we both felt that she wouldn’t be driving again, as it was clear there were issues, but after the driving part of the afternoon, we both felt there was a CHANCE that she could drive again, but it would all depend on whether she could correct her line on the road.

kp was upset, I could tell, when they were reviewing the day. But there were no tears, although she was welling up.

Strangely, the whole test was done in a manual car, with no bolt on knob on the steering wheel, which i thought strange. But this is because kp was used to a manual car. At first, she couldn’t get the gears right at all. We would set off in third with the inevitable stall. But I was impressed that she could do the gears at all. Whereas most people wouldn’t need to look at the gears to get the car into gear. kp really had to concentrate and watch what her left hand was doing.

For the lessons and future driving, they have suggested Karen only uses an automatic car. If she was successful at her next assessment, her licence would be changed to “only automatics”.

So, not exactly what we had hoped for. Still no tears, but I know she will be thinking about it for a few days, and I think the upset will follow.

One funny moment. After the hour’s worth of assessment (which kp later told me REALLY took it out of her, but she tried not to let it show), she wanted a fag before the driving assessment. She asked the lady where she could have a fag. Unfortunately, it was one of those new places where there is no smoking ANYWHERE on the grounds.

kp looking forlorn :- Oh, not to worry.

Seeing kp really wanted a fag, the lady stopped the driving instructor and asked him, in turn he asked another lady who was passing. Another person was passing, she stopped to offer advice. In the end we had 5 staffmembers around us all discussing how to smoke legally on the grounds.

Apparently, if you are in your own car (on the grounds), you can smoke, so that’s what she did

Here is a video clip of kp doing her emergency stop.

CLICK HERE (it may take a while to download)

Driving lessons here we come !