Good week this week. Sleep still remains the BIG issue.

Monday was the Bank Holiday. Sleep has been a BIG problem recently, and kp has been getting very little sleep, so the weekend she took off from her sleep contract and we did lots of snoozing and tv watching. And a nice walk with the dogs.

Tuesday – she went (with Doreen) to physio at Steve’s gym (in Seaham). Steve had got a table tennis table out and they started off by having a go at that. kp couldn’t hit the ball initially. Steve was unaware about kp’s lack of sight in her right eye, which makes it harder for her to see the distance of an object.

After a few missed balls, Steve played a ball diagonally across the table and kp could hit it – weird ! After that, it became a lot easier and she described it to me as “instinctive”. (a word that she couldn’t find, but when I said it, she shouted “Yes”)

After 10 minutes of that, Steve took her to a beam (6 inches off the floor, 4 inches wide) and with Steve helping her, she walked along it (sideways). Once she had done that, she did it again (one foot in front of another). Very impressive – wish I was there ! The idea behind everything he is doing at the moment is improving balance. He then got Karen to try “marching” (like a soldier). Not sure exactly what the purpose of this one was. For some reason, Karen couldn’t march, she couldn’t get the hang of putting the arms forward in time with the legs. No matter how much she was told about it, it didn’t work.

Rachel came to the house in the afternoon. They discussed a new bath seat for Karen. Currently, I lower her into the bath, but it means she can only have a bath if I am around. They are looking into a one that is lowered and raised by pumping in or releasing air. Rachel is going to bring a box of stuff to help Karen’s hand movements this (coming) week.

The following day (Wednesday) Karen and Doreen went to the Metro Centre. Karen reported she had used a few expletives with Doreen when discussing her sleeping patterns. It’s really getting to kp. They had a nice time apparently, with a nice lunch out.

Thusday saw them visit “Whickham Villa”, a hydrotherapy pool and gym. Karen absolutely loved it. She said she was made to feel very welcome and the surroundings were great. She didn’t actually do any of the stuff, as it was more of a “check it out” kind of visit. She is going to definitely go in the future. I think she is going on tuesday of next week. After that, Doreen took her to see the neuropsychologist. Quite a few tears as they discussed a few things that were still quite raw.

On friday, they went to Seaham again to see Steve the physio. Not a good session AT ALL. Karen would get all into an activity, and then someone would come in, and they had to move rooms. Apparently, this happened twice. And when they got to the final room, Steve got one of those big exercise balls which they did some stuff with, only for someone to come along and ask if THEY could have the ball. This is where Karen should have used her dictionary of expletives and the word “Off”.

Satuday – we went for a lovely walk with the dogs and had some snoozes, watching some cracking tv. No sooner had we got back from the walk and the heavens opened.

Sunday – Mum and Dad came up and we went to “The Pump House” for Sunday lunch. Delicious. Thanks for coming up M+D. 

Here is a picture of them outside The Pump House.