Another good week in the bag

Monday was the Bank Holiday. kp was glad of the extra day off. She made the most of it, by chilling and doing non-rehab stuff. Catching up on tv, snoozing. I was due to go to a helicopter lesson, but the British Weather transpired against me. Rather than repeat that over and over again, I’ll just record when I do go !

Tuesday and back to rehab for kp. Nat came and the girls went to physio at Seaham. By all reports, it went very well and Karen now has a new regime to follow when at the gym.

Whilst she does the treadmill, she has to concentrate on keeping her left buttock in. Because of the stroke, her left hip has a tendency to not lock into place as it would naturally for most people. But, if she concentrates hard, she can get it in, and this makes for a walk which doesn’t use as much energy and looks more normal.

Once back to the house, she then has to do pelvic lifts (again, to do with locking left hip forward), and then some balance board.

Wednesday and first thing, I took the bike in for its MOT and it failed Brakes seizing on and not releasing, which I had predicted would happen. Not enough use ! He’s going to fix it this coming tuesday and pass it. kp went to the gym in the morning to do all of the above. The weather was “iffy” but I was told it would be flyable, so I headed off to Newcastle Airport and had my first heli lesson. It was awesome. The weather got worse and we couldn’t get the whole hour in, but it was still worth the 90 minute round trip. The instructor (Steve) was great. He went through all the pre-flight checks, pre-startup checks, post-startup checks. He did all the radio (thankfully) and taxi’ed and took off and then one by one, he let me take each of the controls (cyclic, collective and pedals). After I had done each of them separately, he let me do them all together and I was flying a helicopter !!! What a feeling ! I was on Cloud 9 (no pun intended). He asked me to do various turns and maneuvres and by this time, we were losing the horizon to rain, so he asked me to fly back. I was thrilled as it showed some confidence on his part   I flew it all the way back, joining right-base leg and then on to final approach (25), and I flew it up the runway, down to 500 feet and then he did the rest and he was really good !!! I was well impressed ! Loved it, and couldn’t wait to share it all with kp.

After she came back from the gym, the girls were going to the cinema to see “State of Play”. Unfortunately, kp had a bad experience in the cinema, and they had to leave halfway through the film. Basically, she had an unusual sensation in her left arm, so much so that she couldn’t sit the film out. I arrived back 30 minutes before the girls, eager to share my experience and kp was keen to hear all about it, but I could tell she was “bothered” by her arm.

The following day, we booked an appointment at the doctors. Karen is normally very good at working out if a Doctor’s visit is needed, so for her to want to go was of concern, but the doctor was great and reassured her that it was nothing serious and that she should only worry if her left arm was losing strength, which it wasn’t. So that was a relief. And by the following day, the sensation had gone. One of the things I have noticed is that her arm feels things differently to her right arm. So a cold sensation to her left arm, can feel like a burn. And a light brush with a duster (not something we do, just an example), can feel like I am operating an electric sanding machine on her arm (something I must do one of these days). So, it could be something trivial that if her right arm had felt it, wouldn’t have bothered her at all, like a bit of popcorn stuck to it. We never found out what caused it, but we’re pleased it’s over. That night, she had an awful sleep, but it didn’t prevent her waking up feeling positive on Friday.

While I remember, Dr Yellowlees (Pain Specialist) rang on Thursday to see how kp was getting on with the reduction of her meds. kp was pleased (and rightfully so) that she had reduced the gabapentin to ZERO, the Fentanyl patches to 325 and she is off paracetamol apart from for the usual headache use !!!

We also went to the Psychologists for a very good session with Jane. Very positive and Jane is considering dropping her sessions down in frequency but involving an occupational psychologist who will help kp with getting some long-term meaningful goals and helping her back to some form of voluntary work perhaps ? That’s the vague aim she has at the moment, but it will depend on this specialist.

Friday was another busy day. Gym in the morning and Whickham Villa in the afternoon. At Whickham Villa, she had a lovely massage after some time in the hydro pool. Natalie helped kp work on some of her swimming actions. And something clicked for kp about why she was struggling to swim. So, she has some more moves to work on there, which is great.

And then after all that, we went over to Middlesbrough to pick Abbie(12) and Louisa(5) as they were staying the night. They were very well behaved !! We took them to the fun house and had a meal there. And then by 11pm they were knackered and wanted to go to bed !! At about 8am on Saturday, we were all up and about walking the dogs. Breakfast on our return and then it was time to take them back after a visit to the Garden Centre to order our hanging baskets.

Snooze on our return and then the usual Saturday night. Film (“The Departed”), and Pizza with Britain’s Got Talent.

Today, we were up and out walking the dogs at 6am. And no doubt we will be going for a snooze shortly.

So, great week all round. Another busy one coming up.

Some photos from this week…..

Elsa, chilled…..and in Karen’s seat.

The dogs are very hard to catch sat still, but here’s the best of 7 photos I took…..