Well, the holiday did kp the world of good, although I think she was already on the up the week before the hols.

On the monday following the holiday, kp and Patti had lined up some interviews for Karen’s new support worker. The plan was to get 2 to cover 56 hours of support. I think there were about 9 interviews.

A good sleep the night before would have helped, but sleep still remains the biggest issue at the moment. And unfortunately, Karen had had ZERO sleep by the time I got up at 7.30am to help her get ready. She was absolutely knackered. I did some quick calculations and worked out she could have 45 minutes and she snapped at it. That’s the sleep for Sunday.

She was very worried when she got up that she would fall asleep during the interviews, but I think the adrenalin of the day kept her going.

The interviews went very well ! Karen used to be a manager and has interviewed MANY many times before and she was pleased that the core skills are still there. What really made her day was that Patti (who runs the company that employ the support workers) said something like …. “We think very alike”….

I think what had happened is that when there was someone who wasn’t suitable, Karen had only asked a few of her questions and then said to Patti….

kp:- “I think that’s all my questions done…”

Pattie was on the same wavelength and knew what she meant. And that’s where the “We think very alike” came from. I can’t tell you how good this made Karen feel. I (and others) keep telling her she hasn’t lost the core Karen, but to get confirmation from Patti (someone official) meant a lot to Karen and it 100% boosted her confidence.

I rang at lunchtime, and spookily, kp was ringing me at exactly the same time ! There was noone suitable so far !

But, by the end of the afternoon, they were spoilt for choice. They recruited two people (Laura and Sharon), but unfortunately, later in the week, Sharon declined the post, worried that she didn’t have the confidence to do it. But, Laura seems great from what kp has said, and she has subsequently been offered more hours which she is pleased at, making her full-time and the balance of the hours is going to another lady called Judith who specialises in fitness so it has all worked out really well.

That was monday.

Tuesday and Karen dropped her Gabapentin dose from 1800 a day to 1500. Couple this with the morphine patches down to 500 (as of Friday), plus Tamazepam down to 5mg from 60 at the peak, she is doing awesome !!

On Tuesday, I also took kp to her physio session with Steve at the local Fitness Centre. That went very well apparently.

kp was desperate for sleep on Tuesday night, so took some Zopiclone (it’s not addictive like tamazepam) and 2 of them saw her get 7 hours.

To give you an idea how bad her sleep is, here is a sleep chart we prepared for Dr Parry’s appointment on Wednesday….

The Dr Parry appointment went really well. kp was very anxious to get some movement on the sleep issues now her depressions seems to be lifting. And she got it. He is starting her on another anti-depressant (as well as the Venlafaxine) but not so much for it’s anti-depressant qualities. He explained that it had 2 other properties, one was a sedative effect and the other a calming effect. She started it on the wednesday night (on a low dose (25mg)) and it didn’t help, but on friday this got upped to 50mg and there’s a LITTLE more evidence it’s working, but it may need to go up higher.

Thursday and Joanne (physio) came to help loosen kp’s left shoulder and we also went to see Jane at the Lansdowne Clinic for kp’s psychological counselling and that went very well. Wednesday’s is Karen’s day off from rehab and this got reinforced as the right way forward.

Friday saw Charlotte (an OT helper) come. She is filling in while we wait for the Support Workers to start. Together, kp and Charlotte put up some curtains, something kp has been wanting to do for AGES !

Saturday and the weather was treacherous and we had planned to meet up with Mum, Dad, Jane, Guy and the kids at the Highwayman Inn near Kirkby Lonsdale. The winds were howling and the heavens were opening and kp (and I) had a scary 2 hour journey to this wonderful pub !!

kp was very relieved to get there in 1 piece. What a cracking pub. The food was awesome and we all had lovely meals ! Despite all the noise, kp didn’t find it too overwhelming, which is good, because in the past when she was on a low ebb, that would have been too much. So, that’s another positive !

Here’s Jamie and Sophie at the pub.

Last night’s sleep was another bad one, and I think she came in at about 4/5am. It’s 11.36am now, so I’ll get her up soon to walk the dogs.