Another action-packed week in the life of kp.

Tuesday, we had arranged to meet up with Lydia and Debs for a meal at Chevitas in Durham. It was 3 hours of howling. We had a cracking time, and too much food.

Wednesday saw us visit the pain clinic at University Hospital, Durham. Karen is now on the maximum medication she can be for the pain, so this was supposed to provide us with a way forward. It was a cagey start with the consultant advising to just rearrange the existing pain relief ie more of one drug, less of the other. But, kp and I both instinctively knew that that wasn’t going to crack it. kp spoke up and said that we had come here, ‘cos we had tried all that, and that the doctor was hoping the consultant could come up with other ideas.

And then he did………….

He is going to put kp forward for a trial of Dorsal Column Stimulation. What that is, is that kp goes for a psychological assessment first of all to see if she is suitable. She told me later that she instantly thought that would rule her out, as she isn’t as switched on as she was before the accident. But kp raised her fear and he reassured her that she would have nothing to worry about and that the assessment was more for sussing out the negative people who believed “nothing fixes my pain” etc etc….

It costs £20,000, so they have to be very cagey about who they do it with.

If she passes that, and she will, they then arrange a week’s trial. It’s a general anaesthetic jobby, where they insert an electrode into the epidural area of the back. She wears it for a week to assess how much it improves things, and if all is ok, she goes back to get a full time one implanted. It sits completely under the skin (including the battery) and she gets a remote control unit which she can adjust to control the pain. BAGSY THAT REMOTE !!!!

We are both feeling really good/positive about it.

Thursday, Marie came up and with Karen, they went shopping for FOUR HOURS. Marie was a god-send, carrying 74 bags for kp and keeping her right. If anyone needs a pack-horse for shopping, Marie is available at very reasonable rates, and you’ll be sure to find all the bargains as well.
kp was the worst I have seen her when she got back. She was in an upsetting amount of pain ! She took a big 50mg Morphine tablet, which she hates doing it, so it must have been bad. It didn’t help that much, and she had an awful night’s sleep. She went to sleep, knackered, but as soon as she fell asleep, she was moaning, and that just carried on. I couldn’t stand to listen to her in so much pain, so slept in the other room. Thank God, she was asleep !

Friday, she stayed in pain for most of the day, taking more morphine tablets on top of the patches.

On Friday night, we went to David and Helen’s (the people we had met in Egypt) and had a lovely (and too short) evening with them.

Saturday, kp has been asleep most of the day, as she had a bad night’s sleep.

Tomorrow, we travel darn sarth as I am on a course in Surbiton for the week. kp is spending the week with Ronnie. We are going to see a show on the Tuesday night (Joseph), and kp (and Ronnie) are going to see the television show “Loose Women” being filmed on one of the afternoons.

And then next weekend, we are going to Southampton to spend the weekend with Tracey, Mark, Megan, Thomas and Madge.

We are both really looking forward to the week.

We don’t get back until late Sunday night, so there will be no blog entry until the middle of the following week or perhaps even the following weekend.

Big Thanks to Marie, who is once again coming to house-sit with the dogs.

Thanks Marie !