Not the best week, but thankfully, things improved as the week progressed.

Monday and the plan was Gym in the morning and Royal Quays (Shopping) in the afternoon. But, things went awry early. kp and I started the day with a discussion on how she was feeling, it soon became a teary discussion, but a discussion that needed to happen.

Karen was feeling very daunted by the next step of her “getting back into society”. She was putting a lot of pressure on herself, perhaps too much. We started having a chat about 9am. When Nat arrived at 9.30am, we were very deep into the chat. Nat only stayed for 5 minutes of tears, before I suggested she go into Durham for a bit, so that this chat could play itself out.

I tried to think the whole thing through very logically and explain how well Karen was doing and that she was putting too much pressure on herself and there was no rush to get to the next stage. She had to want it enough to overcome her fears, and perhaps, she wasn’t quite at the point of wanting it that much at the moment. Perhaps now was the time to have a rest phase before moving on. Anyway, it seemed to hit all the right buttons with me and Karen and although she was exhausted after it, she felt more positive. We discussed the rest of the day, and it was felt some more sleep would be beneficial, so I cancelled Nat for the day and kp went for a snooze. When she woke up later, she felt marvellous. I was really pleased !

The following day, I was surprised that when kp woke up, she was feeling very flat. After such a positive night, she was flat, it kinda didn’t make sense to either of us. We put it down to “not enough sleep”, or “being woken up whilst still in a deep sleep”. That seemed to pan out, because after a return for some more sleep, as the day progressed, she felt better and better. The girls went for a swimming lesson with Gail at Whickham Villa. Gail was great. Uncannily, she could tell Karen was stressed and instead of pushing on, she had Karen just relax in the water all lesson. Good move Gail !! I had a heli lesson in the afternoon.

Wednesday and Nat was having a “training day”, so I was the support worker. First thing on Karen’s sheet was the gym. We went to the gym and kp did great. She did about a mile on the treadmill, 3 minutes of cross-trainer, and about 300m of the rowing machine at resistance level 3. Well done kp. Then back to the house for a shower. Then it was Sainsburys. Rachel (OT) arrived at 2pm and we went through the Road Safety scoring sheets. The aim is for Karen to be able to safely cross the road, so she can take the dogs out for a walk if she wants. We live next to a road that can be very quiet, or very busy, depending on the time of day. It’s a 40mph road, but occasionally, “knobheads” go 60mph along it.

So, we have the sheets that list all the steps in crossing the road (about 15-20 steps), and we have to score kp on how well she does.

Things like …..

• “Wear bright noticeable colours”
• “Take the walking stick”
• “Pick a self place to cross the road”

And then we have to score kp with a coded system…..

• “R – Refused to do the step”
• “I – Independently and safely completed this task”
• “VP – Needed a verbal prompt to remember and/or complete the task safely”
• “G – Needed a gesture to remind her”

We were discussing some of the scoring I had given her, and I suggested an additional code to add to the system.

• “KO – Got Knocked Over”

Well, I thought it was funny and I think Rachel did too, but kp thought it a “bit sick”, but she managed a laugh as well. Rachel and kp did a few practice road crossings. I think there was one 60mph knobhead, but she did well, but still nowhere near there yet.

I even managed to get some Air Nav revision in at some point in the afternoon. Jane Burns came to stay for the night later in the day. Lots of laughs but lots of serious chat too. It was a good night.

Thursday, I took kp to see Jane the psychologist at Gosforth. We didn’t know when we entered, but it was our last session with Jane. Jane and Nikki had been talking and they felt that it was unwise to see 2 specialists of the same ilk, it felt right. In our heads, Nikki had been moving kp to her new place in her life, whereas Jane was sorting kp’s mood out. Nikki is capable of doing the mood thing too, so it will be all Nikki from now on. We think it would be beneficial to have longer sessions with Nikki though, as there never seems to be enough time when we see Jane about kp’s mood. The hour goes so quickly !

On the way back from Gosforth, we went to see the Anti-smoking nurse. She was pleased with kp’s continued abstinence and gave her a prescription for the next level of patches. Well done kp. Think it’s nearing 8 weeks now.

Nat was at our house as we arrived back and the girls did Road Safety for the rest of the afternoon. She didn’t do quite as well on this session as she did with Rachel. It was closer to rush hour traffic, and there was one crossing where it would have been “KO” on my scale if Nat hadn’t intervened. Nat said she would have made it across, but kp may not

Friday and the girls had planned a trip to York on the train. The weather could NOT have been worse for it. TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS all day in Esh Winning. It was Heavy Rain ALL DAY. It was so bad, the bridges we normally use to cross a beck on the dog walk were under 3 feet of water. When I went on my bike ride, I couldn’t have crossed them without getting swept away. That bad. Fortunately, York wasn’t as bad. The girls went to the York Dungeons and had a laff there, and then went to Betty’s tea rooms for some lunch. They were back in the house at 4pm !!

And that’s the week. Saturday (yesterday) was dog walking, snoozing, and catching up with TV. We were both at a loose end yesterday and perhaps should have fit more in. Today has been much the same.

So, bad start, better end to the week. I got Karen a card from moonpig.com to summarise the results of our big chat at the beginning of the week. The envelope said “Only to be opened by the best woman in the world”. It was great seeing her puzzled as to who sent it. Here’s the front of the card…..

Here’s the inside….