Good week this week, and we have found the cure for Karen’s sleep problems.

Monday saw Angela (fellow car crash victim) visit. kp was glad to see her after such a long gap and they enjoyed some good banter.

Tuesday, Abby and Adele came – Adele to clean, Abby for the visit. Abby stayed over and on Wednesday Adele came back over and they went to the Metro. kp enjoyed herself, but the walking (and shopping) was a bit much for her, meaning that on Thursday she was a bit worse for wear, even with some morphine tablets in her (20mg). Marie came up to visit, but they just sunned it in the garden.

Friday, Adele was over again, leaving the house sparkling.

Friday night, I was due to go out with some ex-work pals for a night out in Sunderland, but we had forgotten that the solicitor was coming on Saturday morning, and we needed to talk over our plan of action. So, I had to miss that, which was a shame, as I know it would have been a good night.

Anyway, we had a productive meeting with the solicitor, sharing our concerns with him and going through 2 of the reports that we had had back from medical experts.
And then came the solution to Karen’s sleeping problem in the form of a 9-year old boy called Ethan. WHAT A WHIRLWIND. We went over to the ‘boro on Saturday afternoon, picking Ethan up, making a short visit to his dads as he hadn’t seen his dad in a few months. From the moment we got him to the moment I took him back, I kid you not, he didn’t stop talking. It was hard to spot the gaps where he took breaths. He could even talk with a KFC in his mouth. We had a lovely time with him though, despite the verbal diarrhoea. He wanted to watch a Harry Potter movie which he did whilst on my lap, which was canny. But, the thing that REALLY annoyed me, was he would talk all the way through it, giving me a commentary of what was about to happen. Grrrr !

It was 12.30am by the time the film finished. kp was asleep by “Minute 6″ of the film, snoring away merrily. I just yanked the volume up, it made no difference as she was out for the count. I had got the short straw of sleeping with Ethan. You’d think a 9 year old boy would be happy to sleep by his self, but not this one. He is frightened of everything. His dad had a new pup. It’s a 7-week old terrier pup, so you can imagine the size. It wouldn’t fill you up if you ate it. But he was terrified of it, if it approached he would gently whap it away with his hand. Unfortunately, he did this when it was on the sofa and it fell off, falling his head with a big “Yelp”. Ethan was mortified and in tears about what he had done.

When a midge comes near him, he runs away. He hates our dogs, “David, get the dogs out of the room”, being his catchphrase. Yet he came on the dog walk this morning. Poor lad. Anyway, kp had a great night’s sleep on her own. I, on the other hand, didn’t. We got into bed, I was knackered and the talking just carried on. Me saying “It’s bedtime now, time to close your eyes” made no difference. After about 20 minutes, I was being a bit more to the point.

dp:- “Ethan, I am going to sleep now, I am not going to reply anymore”

No difference. Eventually, it trailled off. Thank (insert your deity here) !

But, he is frightened of the dark, so we slept with the “Big Light” on (Peter Kay).

On the walk, there was a horse, towards the end of the walk, which he had to pass to get back to the road. No amount of coaxing would get him to go past the horse. He had to walk all the way back to the start on his own, and I met him at the road.

Anyway, cure for sleep – 9 year old lad called Ethan, as kp had a great sleep !

That’s it for this week’s blog. The only thing this week is Psychiatrist on Thursday.

Here are a couple of photos of Ethan. In one of them he wasn’t speaking !

Here he is – SILENT AT LAST.