Especially sleepy week this week overall, but first the week, day by day.

Monday – some more time of work for me. This time to attend an eye test with Karen. I picked Karen up at the dentist, where she had had a filling. I paid the bill at the dentist, and it was £75 !!!! She had opted for the white filling amalgam. I was sweating for the rest of the afternoon because of that. We went on to the eye test that kp has been asked to do for the DVLA. We had some time to kill, so went for a coffee close to the opticians. The eye test was all computer controlled which was interesting. The lady set the test away and kp had to push the buzzer when she saw a light appear. They wouldn’t tell us the result of the test, they just send it on to the DVLA.

Tuesday – more time off work. Karen had physio in the morning. She went there herself with Alan (the ace taxi driver) who then picked her up an hour later and brought her to ITPS, where she had a coffee with me Julie (my work colleague) whilst I did the last few minutes of work I could cram in. We then went to see a Neuro Rehabilitation Consultant. Neither of us could remember what this visit was for. All we knew is that kp’s main neuro consultant had referred us there. It didn’t go too well at first. I felt I could sense a personality clash at first between kp and the consultant. He asked her a question along the lines of “what do you want out of the session?”. kp answered as best she could and followed it up with “if that makes sense ?”. His reply was “No, it doesn’t”. So kp answered again, to which he AGAIN replied “No, I still don’t understand”. Well, from my perspective, I thought he wasn’t being very understanding of her condition, and I could tell kp’s heckles were up.

kp:- What is it that you don’t understand ?

Eventually, she seemed to say the right thing. He excused himself from the room to go and ring our main neuro consultant. After 10 minutes he returned, and then everything was fine and we got on great. He was like a different man and we left feeling very positive.

The conclusion was, he is referring kp for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and also referring kp back to her psychiatrist so that he can help her cope with the bad depressions she has.

After this appointment, we went straight to the doctors to get the prescriptions changed. We got the patches upped to 200, and the anti-depressants doubled.

Wed/Thurs/Fri saw no appointments. Michelle, Marie and Adele came up during the week and kp really enjoyed their visits. It left her very positive.

We are having our bathrooms renewed at the moment, so those are cracking on. The first (smaller) one is all but complete and they have gutted the bigger one which is going to have a bath in (with a seat for kp).

This week saw kp’s sleeping get to new levels. She has always slept a lot since the accident, but this last week (and  this weekend) seemed to have taken this to a new level. I don’t think it would be exaggerating to say she sleeps more than she is awake. And she gets annoyed about it.

Saturday, she didn’t get up until about 1pm. We went to IKEA to look for bathroom fittings. She went straight to bed on her return for a few hours.

Sunday (today), she got up at 8am for an hour and has pretty much slept until 4pm. She was up in the night from 1am to 3am, so basically her sleep is all over the place.

We are hoping to go around America (in a Camper Van) in October, and spent an hour this afternoon planning that trip. That’s pretty much it for this week.

This (upcoming) week sees only one appointment. Fracture Clinic at the QE Hospital Gateshead (Monday (tomorrow)). One of the things the rehab consultant recommended was retracing her hospital stays, so we are going to do that tomorrow to see if it helps her mood. It could go 2 ways he said, so fingers crossed it goes the right way.