Day 1508 to 1514. Monday 1st to Sunday 7th June 2009
Well, busy week all round this week. It started with a non-legal MDT meeting which is where the therapists convene at our house to discuss kp’s progress.
For people to report progress after the 4th year post-accident is impressive. And across the board, that was the consensus. The biggest improvement (in my opinion), has been mental. Since the last MDT, we’ve cracked the sleep and depression and that is the most important thing to be on top of. 6 months ago, there was no way I could be considering work or my life generally, but the fact I can refocus on me speaks volumes 
It was a very positive meeting. There were a few tears at one point and these stemmed from anger. For the last couple of weeks, kp has been getting increasingly angry about why she is in this situation, but she knows that dwelling on what has happened is not positive for her, and it’s when she’s focussing on the future that life is good. So, it’s like she’s dipping her toe in the angry pool to get a bit of frustration out, and then back to facing forward. So, generally a very positive meeting. We have another one before the end of June and that is the legal one where all the solicitors come as well.
In the afternoon, Karen (and Nat) went to a load of garden centres to get loads of plants. They came back with enough to start our own garden centre – Well it felt like that, when I was moving them from the front to the back of the house.
Whilst they were gardening, I went to Newcastle Airport for Lesson number 5 (Hovering). I came back on Cloud 9 (pardon the pun), as I felt like I’d cracked the hover (little did I know!).
That night, Marie (kp’s sister) arrived and the following morning, I took them to the train station in Durham for their trip to see Jon Edwards (the psychic) in Edinburgh.
The girls (kp+Marie) had a great time in Edinburgh. The hotel and theatre were walkable from the train station, so I don’t think they used a single taxi !! kp didn’t think much of Edinburgh. It was too much like London (busy-wise) for her, but she enjoyed the Jon Edwards show. She was hoping to receive a message so she could start believing in things like that, but the only message she got was when Marie prodded her to wake her up as her snoring was too loud.
Whilst kp was in Edinburgh. Tommy (ace neighbour) and I finished off the greenhouse and a bloody good job we did too. I think this was when the weather was still nice, and we were really sweating our b+ll+cks off.
The following day (Wednesday), Marie and kp had a late breakfast and had a wander around a nearby park. They didn’t fancy shopping (too busy for kp). Whilst they were doing that, I was on Heli Lesson 6, which was a trip north of Morpeth to an area where we could do circuits practicing transitions (where you go from forward flight to the hover and vice-versa) and hovering. Well, the hover I thought I had cracked, I hadn’t !! The transitions went “ok” and the circuits were fine, but the hover. Well, I had lost the knack !! I was gutted and couldn’t think why I couldn’t do it. Steve (instructor) said it could be because the wind was a lot higher, and it was probably a little of that, but more that I wasn’t “in the zone”. Bit disheartening 
After the lesson, I picked the girls up. kp really missed me and vice-versa. We are so used to being close to each other and a night apart feels like a lot longer. Always nice to get back together again !
Thursday was the dentists for kp and I. kp, as usual, faired better, requiring no follow-up work. I had a cracked filling which needs replacing and some staining to get cleaned up (nice!).
In the afternoon, Nat and kp gardened ALL afternoon. All the plants they had previously bought needed potting which is back-breaking work. They had a system to make it better for kp, but the following day, she paid a price for such a long spell of gardening.
Whilst they were gardening, I had Heli Lesson 7. The whole lesson was hovering and I was over the moon to leave it feeling great, I had once again cracked the hover (I think!). Not only did we hover, but we did hover-taxiing, turns in the hover etc etc….It was FAR from perfect, but, although there were some VERY hairy moments, I managed to get them ALL back to a hover, where previously Steve had to save the day. There were also a couple of maneuvres where I thought Steve had helped (they were so smooth), but when I asked him if he had helped, he said that he had been too busy praying to control the helicopter – it made me laugh !
Friday came all too soon, and with it pain galore for Karen. She was VERY angry that such a small amount of gardening (I thought it was large !!!) had left her unable to do anything physical. Loads of morphine popped plus diclofenac and the pain was bearable, but she wasn’t very functional. So, it was a day in, talking with Nat. In the late afternoon, a lady called Nicki Brosnan came. I think she is a neuro-psychologist and her aim is ultimately to get kp engaged in some kind of vocational work back in the community. She started by doing loads of tests with kp. They are always intriguing to watch, but they do the trick, and they allow Nicki to see where kp has difficulties (visuo-spatial, recent memory, left neglect, and something else I can’t remember). Once she knows the issues, she can help kp with tactics/strategies to overcome them as much as poss, and then move on to her end goal. All good, and kp really liked her. Very switched on, and straight to the point, something kp likes !!
The weekend upon us, we have mostly been dog walking, and catching up on TV. Up very early both days. 6am yesterday and 5am today. But, all good !!
Another busy week coming up.