What a difference a week makes ! Or more importantly, a weekend.

The week started off in pain, but kp was not in dire mood, bordering on “very ok”, not quite “good”. We had been doing some gardening, and she had done about 15-20 minutes of it (bending over), and monday afternoon she paid the price for it. 2 x 10mg morphine, plus hot bath was ordered and delivered.

The good thing about the day was that all the pain didn’t bring her down. Things were starting to look up.

Tuesday morning and she woke up perky   Physio (with Nat) mid-morning and a few tears whilst she was out, so things weren’t as good as I had thought

The psychiatrist said he would phone on tuesday and indeed he did. Karen explained her low mood and he has up’ped the Amytrypteline. This is both an anti-depressant and it definitely helps her sleep. Karen didn’t have that much faith that it would help, but she knows with anti-depressant medication, it’s very hard to get right and it takes 2 weeks for each change to take effect, so “waiting game” time.

Wednesday, the girls were due to go to the Metro Centre, but kp couldn’t think of anything she wanted, so they went to the gym instead and then followed that with physio exercises at home. kp was getting perkier

Thursday, we went to see a psychiatrist who was doing a report for “the other side”. A nice chap who we met at a business centre by the River Tyne. These kind of things always concern me, as they have the potential to be a turning point for the worse ie when the accident is discussed etc. But, Karen was great, she narrowly avoided tears, although I could tell she was close at one point. Well done kp.

Thursday night, we watched a Jade remembrance programme, and that got kp teary. Anything at all will set her off.

Friday and we were both up about 6.15am and decided to take the dogs for a walk, as the dog walker was off. It was a lovely but cold walk, and by 7.30am we were enjoying breakfast back in the warmth of the house. We had planned to go to the Cash & Carry for mini-eggs for the Easter Egg hunt, but it wasn’t to be.

Instead, we caught up on lost sleep and TV that we were behind on.

And then came the weekend. We have had an absolute blast, and Karen is buzzing today ! Jabbering like a good’un. Saturday was none too eventful, consisting of dog walking and pottering around the house with the usual Saturday night pizza and “Britain’s got talent” entertainment.

Sunday, and my family came up from Lancashire. We were due to meet them at the Royal County (where they were staying) at 12pm and I knew that first visit would be key. The trickiest thing would be getting her there without tears or upset. I was sure if she made it, she’d be ok. True enough, we made it there and met them at the Leisure centre. So far, so good !!!  Next challenge was that she wouldn’t feel hemmed in or trapped by having company around her. But, it all seemed to be going fine on that front too. Then, something happened and I thought that would be the end of the weekend for kp. Jamie (my nephew (5)) ran into a car park barrier and made a big dent in his head. Jane rushed him back to the Leisure centre with blood dripping from his head. She took him in to get the Leisure Centre first aid kit. At this, Karen started crying. She was upset at seeing Jamie upset. Jamie was really good and there were hardly any tears, but kp was struggling to keep her upset in, but she did, and I think only Jane cottoned on that she had been tearful.

The next step was to take Jamie to A+E. It was decided that I’d take Jane ‘cos I knew where it was, and all the rest (including kp) would go to the restaurant for lunch. kp looked a bit worried that I was leaving her, but we went ahead with the plan. As luck would have it, we were in and out of the hospital within 30 minutes with Jamie’s head all glued up

We rejoined the group for lunch and had a lovely chatty lunch. kp was gradually perking up. After lunch, the crew were going to Diggerland with the kids, while kp and I prepared the Easter Egg hunt. The weather was gorgeous and it was roasting in the back garden. The hour or two we had to ourselves was perfect for Karen to recharge ready for the next meet-up. When they arrived, we did a reintroduction to the dogs, which in hindsight wasn’t necessary, as they seemed to remember them from before. And then we all went into the garden for the egg hunt and chat/drinks. It was lovely, and kp really enjoyed it.

The kids very kindly has made us some Easter gifts…..Here they are…..

To top off the day, the kids wanted to stay the night at ours, and kp and I had already discussed that they may want to do that and had said it would be ok. So, a chatty and busy evening continued, but one we both really enjoyed. kp was in her element. At one point of the evening, kp was having a fag out the back, and Jamie left me and Sophie to go and find her. He looked all around the house and by himself went out the back.

Jamie (having found her) :- I’ve been looking for you

kp was laughing at this and I think was dead chuffed too

Bedtime for the kids was interesting. I had promised a story and ended up being persuaded to do THREE !!! And each was an epic with full character voicing. Perhaps they were too good And then I had to pretend to go to sleep with them. Sophie was being an arse and kept kicking Jamie to keep him awake, but eventually they settled and kp and I could relax.

I was awake at 5am, wondering why there was no noise coming from their room. At 6am, I was more concerned. By 6.15am, I had to check up on them, they were fast asleep. I took in the camera to take a shot for the blog, but they woke up when I switched the camera on

Just as well though, ‘cos we needed to have walked the dogs and be back to get kp ready for 9am. We all had breakfast together before the Pollard/Boxall clan arrived. It was then time to go to Beamish Museum. The weather remained lovely and we all had a great time at Beamish. Here are Sophie and Jamie being instructed by the Beamish Headmaster……

Jamie was very tired towards the end, and I was the lucky(unlucky) one who he wanted to cling to ALL THE WAY UP the Beamish hill towards the car !! I loved it

Back to our house for more chat, and then to the Royal County for a meal. Normally, the Royal County does very poor food, their Sunday lunch is atrocious, but the bar meal we had was lovely and a perfect end to a fantastically brilliant weekend. By this time, kp was paying the price for the trip round Beamish and had popped some morphine tablets. She hadn’t eaten a thing all day, but we think the morphine tablets made her nauseous, and then shortly after the meal, promptly went to the loo to throw up, or to try to

Whilst kp was with mum at the loo, I was dragged (by Jamie) up to the bedroom to say goodbyes. For some reason, he was really clingy, and parting was very hard as he was crying (for me) as I left. I felt honoured and a bit sad and made the mistake of telling kp, but she held up and there were no tears.

We were exhausted when we got back and I was in bed by 10pm. kp came a little later.

The great news is that when Karen woke this morning (tuesday morning), she felt like she was feeling great. Obvsiouly, it’s early days, but generally speaking her mood has been much more on the up, than on the down, and coincidentally, Easter Sunday is 4 weeks to the day after she gave up the Gabapentin, so it should definitely be all out of her system by now.

Here’s praying it all continues !! Thanks for coming up mum, dad, jane, guy, sophie and jamie. I’m not sure how much the “coming up” has helped, but funnily enough, there are a few recent occasions when Karen was due to go and see Michelle or Yvonne, or other friends and hasn’t been able to pull it off, but someone coming to see her, seems to have made all the difference. Thanks very much !