Good Night’s Sleep and fast asleep when I arrived – Looked as snug as a bug in a rug.

Adele had some personal issues to deal with today, and kp spent a while on the phone to her discussing them with Adele.

Ate a good breakfast and lunch. Nice Bedbath and Leg Shaving.

Both had a snooze in the morning.

Yvonne brought her iPod in and played kp a tune or two while I was there. She played Mambo No. 5 and it sounded great. I was dancing to it and kp was strutting her stuff too. Smiles all round.

Fast Asleep when I arrived for the evening shift. Ate a good tea. Watched some Wimbledon before falling asleep again. She woke up for a turn and during the 5 minutes she was awake explained that she doesn’t seem to be able to concentrate as much on Wimbledon. She watches points and then doesn’t know who’s in the lead at the end of it. Very unlike Karen. Normally, Wimbledon contact Karen if they have lost count of what the score is.

When she fell back to sleep, I left for the evening.

A very disturbed night’s sleep because of bowel movements.

Enjoyed hair wash and bedbath by 2 of the funniest loveliest nurses. I had the morning off for good behaviour. They had kp in stitches as they went about the bedbath routine. Jokes such as the following were flying across the bed between the double act of nurses.

Nurse :- “I see you have the Irish Shampoo”
Karen :- “What do you mean ?”
Nurse :- “Tim O’Tei” (pronounced in an Irish accent like the name of an Irish man)

She didn’t eat much breakfast and hardly any lunch. She slept MOST of the afternoon and it was a DEEP sleep : the kind of sleep where every so often I would glance at her chest to check she was still breathing. At some points of her sleep, she had her eyes wide open – very disconcerting. Looked like something from the Omen Films. Karen Pollard aka Damien.

When Lillian and Bernard visited, she didn’t even hear them come in and chat to Marie and I for 5 minutes. Marie brought her back from the dead with a loud “Karen” and she went on to enjoy her visitors’ company and especially Lillian’s Ham Shank Soup. She had a GOOD size portion and polished the lot off. Nice one kp.

By 7.30pm she was knackered again, and doing her “I’ll fall asleep while I am in mid-sentence to my husband” routine. I left her to sleep.

Better night sleep, but still disturbed with too many bowel issues.

Had a piece of toast with some tea for breakfast.

Then the choice – snooze or bedbath before Lydia’s visit. We were both keen on a snooze and so grabbed an hour. Bedbath followed. kp was laughing at me at one point. There is a remote control unit for the bed on a bouncy bendable stem. I moved it out of the way and it bounced back and headbutted me. I instinctively raised my fist at it which made kp laugh as I am not generally an aggressive person.

Lydia arrived for visiting with loads of goodies – thanks Lydia. Scones, Butter, Strawberries, Fresh OJ etc etc…. I may let kp have some later on.

We had a good laugh with Lydia then the physios came to get kp into the chair. When Lydia left, Marie and I took kp outside for some fresh air. It was a scorcher. We had about 20 minutes outside, took some photos which I will put up later on with kp’s ok and then returned for some more of Aunty Lillian’s Ham Shank Soup.

And so concludes the morning…..

When I arrived, kp was asleep. Asleep is too light a word, she was very very deeply asleep. She didn’t hear

• Me arrive
• Marie tell me everything that occurred on the afternoon
• Mum and Dad arrive
• Mum and Dad discuss things
• Nurse shouting at her if she wanted soup

She even scratched her head in her sleep, said “Ow !!!!” ‘cos it hurt and still didn’t wake up. Seriously.

I can’t remember if it was Marie shouting “Karen” or something else that woke her. Even when awake, she didn’t realise Mum and Dad were here for a minute or two.

She had had a VERY tiring day. The morning I have already mentioned in Part One. The afternoon was jam-packed according to Marie.

• The nurses came in to change all kp’s dressings.
• The consultant who performed the initial pelvis operation on Karen visited to see how she was doing and to inspect her wounds. This meant all the newly done dressings had to be removed.
• He was very pleased with the wounds and advised a new type of dressing.
• The nurses came and redressed all the wounds according to the consultant’s wishes.
• Then the physios arrived and gave kp a gruelling physio session with lots of pain (all necessary of course). At one point, the 2 physios were each working on a different kp body part and both were painful. The physios couldn’t work out if kp was saying “Ow!” at the move they were doing or their partner physio was doing. They asked Karen to come up with a different “Ow!” for each physio. Oh, how Karen laughed !
• Somewhere in the midst of all of this was a change of sheets requiring multiple moves.

In a nutshell, kp had a very active afternoon. When Mum and Dad arrived and kp finally woke up, we had some really good laughs. I was amazed that kp had the energy as I could have sworn she would not wake up.

One particular moment I can recall was when Mum was trying to reassure Karen that she would get some compensation for everything she had been through.

Mum:- Oh, you will love. You were nearly dead !

kp was belly laughing at this !! She knows my mum can be a bit “foot in mouth” at times.

Another moment of hilarity is when a member of staff, (Mrs Overall), came along the ward and we could hear her say many times to each different patient :-

Mrs O :- Would you like some Butterscotch Pie ?

This got funnier and funnier as she got closer to Karen’s room. She speaks very like Mrs Overall and when she said it in our room, we had to try very hard to mask our laughter. Mum failed dismally.

Lots of laughs – a great night with a bit of a downer to end.

kp had some sickness and diarrhoea which wasn’t very pleasant. As soon as she had finished, she was out for the count. I barely made it to the door before she was fast asleep.

The Day of Realisation

No laughs this morning. kp was very quiet, hardly talking at all. The first thing she wanted to do when she woke up was to go back to sleep

I persuaded her to have some breakfast and then we had 45 mins kip. We then started on the bedbath. Half way through, kp broke down into tears. She said she felt so helpless. I was moving all her arms and legs to allow for washing, and I could tell that for the first time, the reality of her situation was dawning on her. I told her to hug me, and she did. 1 minute later, I tried to move away so we could talk, but she didn’t let go. I tried to comfort her and tell her the things she has got to look forward to like “coming home, having a bath, a shower” etc…. And her reply was “Why should I have to look forward to those things ?”. She is dead right of course. They are all things we take for granted and now they are things that Karen has to aim for through no fault of her own.

Shortly after the upset, the physio came and halfway through the physio, kp broke down again. The physio didn’t know if he should push on or talk to Karen so he asked her. She said “Carry On”. So kp was crying while the physio was carrying on his arm/leg-bending.

I have been amazed (as a lot of people have) at kp’s progress to date. She works hard every day to make herself better. But every so often, she is going to have days like today. I tried to explain this as best I could to her – she is a very positive person and I feel sure she will bounce back within the next day or so.

When Marie arrived, kp hardly said a word until 30 minutes after we had took her outside. Her first real words were :-

kp:- “David, tell Marie what your mam said yesterday !”

I did. Marie and I laughed. kp smiled.

The results of some tests came back today and they confirmed that Karen has an infection in her bowel. I can’t recall the exact name, but it is a form of Chlostridium (not Botulinum that’s for sure).

She is very lacking in energy and just sleeps most of the time at the moment. For the first 20 minutes of Debs’ visit she was zonked. A Doctor had visited kp on a number of occasions today and kept leaving ‘cos he didn’t want to disturb her, but this time, he had to wake her up or he would never have seen her.This is when she realised she had a visitor.

I don’t think Debs got the best visit in the world, but thanks for all the goodies Debs. The Madeira Cake and Lemon Cake were lovely. Karen didn’t feel up to them, but it would be rude if I didn’t try them for her.

He checked her chest and a few other things and informed kp and Marie of the infection. She needs to drink 4L (8 pints in Geordie) of water a day. If she doesn’t she will be put on a drip to try and clear away the bowel infection. They don’t want to put her on a drip if they can help it, because of the risk of infection.

Today has been a low day for Karen – A trough in a sea of many crests.

She has hardly eaten anything today. Bit of breakfast (slice of toast), half a bowl of soup and a bread bun and nothing for tea apart from some cherries. Maybe that’s enough for someone who is in bed all day, but I, for one, would feel better if she ate more.

She could barely keep awake tonight.

To end on a positive
The doctor informed kp that the consultants had given the ok to put Karen in the hoist. This opens up a lot of doors for Karen that were otherwise closed such as

• Having a Bath
• Having a Shower
• Going in a normal chair
• Having a ride in a hoist

Which reminds me that the physio is going to dangle Karen on the end of the bed so her feet are hanging off the end. This will be weird for Karen after nearly 9 weeks of something always being beneath her feet. It is supposed to give her the sensation of going to stand up in preparation for that day.

I feel sure I have forgot some things, but the gist of this blog entry is that it has been a bad day for kp, upsetting, sad, and a generally low day.

Let’s hope a good night’s sleep does the trick, which reminds me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The “Chillow” arrived today. I took it in for kp and set it up. The “Chillow” is the chilled pillow – it was something her work team wanted to buy for her. It is basically a bag with some foam and water in, but after following the instructions I must admit it feels cool. We’ll know if it has been of benefit in the a.m.

I thought the tide may have turned on the bad day from yesterday as kp said she had had a good night’s sleep and her first few sentences were typical kp. This changed very quickly however. My first job in the morning is to get her sitting up for breakfast, which I did and within seconds of being sat up, she was very sick. She hadn’t eaten anything overnight, which made the process of vomiting even more tricky and there were a few tears (not though upset, more through the strain of being sick I think).

No breakfast today.

She didn’t feel like a bedbath today either. Not surprising, given the number of moves required for a bedbath, so instead, we both had a sleep. I was snoring again apparently.

When the physio came at 11.15am, he did a good workout on kp and I could see progress in her right foot. Previously, it wasn’t able to get as far as 90′ to the leg, but today, she could manage it. Very important for walking apparently.

She didn’t really want to get into the chair, but together we all persuaded her to give it a try. She managed about 40 minutes. Not bad for an off day. We also persuaded her to have some soup and bread that Marie and I had brought in. Within 10 minutes of it going down, it was back up again

She is on a new drug to fight the infection in her bowel. Apparently, one of the side effects is increased nausea. Well, we can definately confirm that !

Adele came with Marie today but it was very difficult to get any conversation out of kp even for us family. We asked her what she wanted to do about her visitors and she asked that they be put on hold until she is feeling better.

Hopefully that won’t be too far away.

kp is still out of sorts. Not eaten anything all day (that has stayed down). We had a few smiles from her tonight when Adele showed her some phone video footage of her daughter (2 year old Louisa) playing with a spider and shrieking.

Most of the afternoon and evening was spent watching the tennis & sleeping – very little talking.

By 7.15pm, she was fast asleep.

I got a phonecall last night from Marie that she had read an article in the local paper that there is a new killer superbug and it had taken the lives of X people in North Eastern Hospitals (including Gateshead) . It was called Clostridium Difficil. That’s the same thing Karen has. Shine a Light. Both Marie and I were worried. I switched on the news just before I went to sleep and sure enough it was on North Eastern News as well.

I checked the internet for a good article on it. It reassured me that it was rarely a killer, and in the majority of cases it could be cured with an antibiotic and I recognised the name as the one Karen is now on. Marie had also mentioned that it was a certain strain of Clos. Diff. that was a problem. I made a point of finding out which strain this morning. It doesn’t look like it is the bad one (more later why this is thought to be the case).

Heading in the right direction again

When I arrived, for some unbeknownst reason, I broke into song to wake Karen up. It did the trick. I’d like to say also she appreciated it, but she didn’t.

She was a little more talkative than the previous day, but at that time not really feeling any better. We had a bit of a conversation during the breakfast where she said

kp:- I feel I am going down the pan.

My first thoughts with anything bad go back to something our first consultant said.

“Slow steady progress is what we want, not fast progress”
He made it clear that the people who make the slow progress generally do better. I know each case is indigidual blah de blah, but it was my first thought. And kp has made such good fast progress.

I reassured her why she was feeling under the weather but didn’t go into too much detail about my concerns about clos. diff.

She was going to have some Rice Crispies (half a bowl) for breakfast but was waiting for the anti-sickness drug. It didn’t come until 9am and the nurse who brought it unnerved us a bit. She said she didn’t want to give Karen’s drugs out until I arrived and then the first thing she said after that was to me :-

Nurse :- So, what drugs would you like ?

I was tempted to say 1/2 Kilo of Cocaine, 240 Ecstasy tablets etc etc…but resisted the urge.

This unnerved us both and we got confused as to which tablets were which and kp lacked faith in taking them because she didn’t know what they were.

We asked to see the Sister about this nurse for some reassurance and it was promptly given, so we feel a bit more confident now. The sister also stayed for about 10 minutes to give us a good talk about the future. Key elements :-

• Be prepared for hard work – Damn Right kp, the ironing is REALLY mounting up.
• People with just a stroke take upto 3 months to be able to walk again properly. kp has additional injuries which will make relearning to walk even harder).
• It is 4 more weeks (end of July) when kp will be able to weight-bear on her pelvis (end of July). The 3 months (minimum) starts then.
• First, she will have to learn to sit upright unaided and keep her torso balanced.
• Then they will get her to reach out for things, remaining balanced.
• Then the same things standing up.
• Then walking.
• Then hoovering.
• Then ironing.

kp was feeling a littler better by this stage and talking more.

Bedbath was uneventful which is good as there was no vomiting.

No time for a snooze today as a Doctor came in to check kp over. I managed to ask what strain of Clos. Diff kp had. He said they wouldn’t know for a few more days. Apparently, it takes a few days to grow the bacteria to know what type it is, and then even longer to know which strain it is. But he said he wasn’t worried as he could tell kp was looking and feeling better and therefore the antibiotics seemed to have started working.

Poor Marie. Shortly after I left, kp had her physio session, then kp fell asleep until the moment I arrived back. Marie didn’t get any private time with kp to have a natter. Maybe tomorrow.

The physio has said that tomorrow they are going to put kp on the edge of the bed with her feet dangling off to give her the sensation of balancing her torso in preparation to standing up. Very exciting ! It’s something for kp to aim for and look forward to.

Dinner tonight was Cottage Pie and Sliced Potatoes. kp gave it a go and ate all the cottage pie element of the meal, which was good. Her appetite is picking up slowly. Tomorrow is Fish and Chip Day – it’s lovely. In Ward 3, an extra portion would appear from nowhere for me, which was great. Tomorrow, I’ll just tell Karen that they have missed you today, how do you fancy some soup ?

After dinner, I was falling asleep while kp was watching the tennis. I couldn’t bear the grunting women, so fell asleep with my head on the bed. That got uncomfortable so I got the bedchair out and had an hour on that. When I woke up, kp was out for the count. She woke up when I tried to quietly put the bedchair away unsuccesfully. We had 5 mins of natter, but she wanted to sleep again. I prepared the room for the sleep (buzzer, sick bowl, water, phone) and did my usual “See you tomorrow, love you…” and left.

kp was asleep by 8.10pm tonight

CLICK HERE for July’s Chapter

Good Night’s Sleep.

More positive and talkative kp today I am pleased to be able to report. Back to the usual banter.

Her head was hurting and when I checked the head dressing, it was out of position and very sloughy. So I changed the dressing and made a right pig’s ear of it. Took twice as long as it should have because I hadn’t got all the key stuff to hand. Preparation is the key and I thought dressing packs came with sterile water, but they didn’t. But we got there in the end.

Breakfast consisted of 2 weetabix and she probably had about 1/2 a weetabix.

Bedbath uneventful.

The big news was the morning physio session. We were told they were going to get kp sitting up by herself on the bed with her legs dangling off. kp was very anxious about this and had woken up at 5am worrying about how they were going to do it.

First, they shifted her to a physio bench with a PAT slide. Then one physio gradually lifted her back, while the other 2 held her hips and legs in place. A huge smile came across her face as she started to be sat up and she came out with:-

kp:- wahey !

The smile stayed all the way until she was sitting bolt upright with the head physio supporting her back. Various exercises were then done to get kp to get her balance. They hurt at first, but after a couple of physio tweaks, they were sorted. She had to pat another physio on the back whilst retaining her balance. At first, she was being supported, but by the end of the session, kp was pretty much maintaining her sat up position herself and doing the maneuvre solo. She was rightly well pleased with herself as was the physio. It also didn’t hurt her cocchyx, but instead her bones in her arse (sorry Karen, bottom) were hurting.

Big Success and something which kp is pleased she has tackled and achieved.

Another sleep-filled afternoon for Karen. The physio came in to do 5 minutes of arm work and plans to do another sitty-up day on Tuesday.

Marie and kp had a few laughs this afternoon while she was awake. At one point, kp was adjusting the position of her bed and went all the way on her back. Marie asked what she was doing and kp said she didn’t know. Marie started laughing, so did kp.

At another point, Marie was doing passive exercises on kp’s arm and kp started rubbing Marie’s finger. Marie started looking intently at her own finger to see what the problem was, couldn’t see anything so asked kp what she was doing.

kp:- I thought I saw a bump ?

There was nothing there. Marie laughed because she was looking so hard at her own finger for something wrong, and kp laughed because she had made Marie look.

Probably not funny when read back in the blog, but funny at the time and when relayed to me.

Generally an uneventful evening. Few dressings changed, catheter issues, and a nurse making kp smile by putting Hawaiin shorts on with her pinny tucked in, leaving the flap out at the back. Very funny at the time, and carried on being funny as she did most of her shift in it. It’s hard asking people about catheter issues when all you can focus on is Hawaiian shorts and a bunny tail flap. Lovely nurses/staff on Ward 22. In fact, Gateshead is one hell of a hospital. I know we had our problems in Ward 3, but this wasn’t down to the quality of the staff (with one exception), it was down to the numbers to patient ration for such a chronic-illness ward.

At 6.45pm :-

kp:- Is it bedtime yet ?

I laughed. She has in her mind that her bedtime is 7pm now. It does tend to work out that by then she is knackered.

dp:- It’s bedtime when you want it to be love ?!

She wanted to go to sleep. Some final reassurance from the nurse that the catheter was working fine, and she went to sleep.

When I arrived, bang on 8.30am, kp was looking towards the door.

dp:- Morning Love
kp:- Morning
dp:- Good Night’s Sleep
kp:- Lovely
dp:- Excellent

dp:- Why were you looking towards the door when I came in ?
kp:- I was waiting for you to come in to turn the TV off ?

It was out of reach and every morning it comes on automatically at about 7am to the same channel it was on the previous night. Unfortunately, every morning at that time on BBC2, it’s cartoons, so poor kp had been subjected to 1 hours worth of kids cartoons blaring away in the background. She had asked one of the cleaning ladies to switch it off :-

kp:- Can you switch the TV off for me please ?
Cleaning Lady:- Not really

Apparently, the lady thought better of what she had said and came back a few seconds later and switched it off – but obviously not too well.

kp didn’t feel like the cooked breakfast they do on the weekends, but had a full bowl of rice crispies. Bedbath and change of dressings came next. I even managed to change the sheets at the same time, but was appalled with the outcome. It’s nearly touching the floor one side, and just under kp the other. The sheets even have guide lines on them so you should know where to position them. Better Luck next time dp. Changing Sheets is a woman’s job and duty anyway ! (dp ducks!)

We both then had a snooze for an hour until Yvonne arrived. Marie is on a well-deserved day off. All morning I had been psyching kp up to get into the bedchair for her lunch and maybe a little trip outside ‘cos the weather is nice.

In walks Yvonne :-

Yvonne:- Eeee, the weather is awful out there. Cold, Damp and loads of Sea Fret.

DOH !!!!

kp stayed in the bed for lunch. I should have warned Yvonne – my bad.

I left kp and Yvonne watching Wimbledon (Ladies’ Final day)

kp had fallen asleep in the company of Yvonne and Adele while watching the Wimbledon Ladies Final. She had only eaten a little soup for lunch.

Apparently, she woke up a couple of times in the afternoon and said “Is David here yet ?”. “No” was the reply at which she nodded off again. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

When I arrived for the evening shift, she became a bit more perkier. I don’t think it’s anything to do with me or the company, it’s just she is now used to an active morning, a snoozy afternoon, a bit energy for early evening and then zonked. And it was the same tonight.

She perked up to see some carpet samples I had brought in. And the quiz that Ronnie did, cheered her up and she did her usual singing along to the tunes, which was very funny. But Ronnie, it was quite hard and our score will not be too high. I say our score, I can honestly say that my contribution was NIL ! I need some songs from my teens (90′s).

She wants another go in the morning before I declare our answers.

She could sing a lot of the songs, but couldn’t pin down the band/artist name bit for quite a lot of them. Maybe tomorrow.

We had some good laughs tonight. I was checking kp’s wound at the top of her bum and finished by kissing her bum cheek. The conversation went something like this :-

dp:- You see, you don’t get that kind of care from the nurses here do you ?
kp:- I am glad I don’t !

kp laughed. I laughed at kp laughing.

That’s about it. I have the morning off tomorrow – yay. kp is fending for herself. Actually she has arranged for two of her nurse bezzas to wash her hair. If she is in top form, no doubt she will have managed to wangle a full wash-and-dry, tinting, blue rinse, manicure, pedicure and other girly things from them. We will see !

Before I forget, kp has submitted her quiz entry Ronnie. Clicking Here should get you to the answer.

Today has been an eventful day on the whole. Before Marie arrived there had been a fire alarm incident on the ward with a smell of burning. The Fire Brigade were called and ALL beds were evacuated very quickly. This kind of thing has happened before while kp was in the Intensive Care Unit, but the beds weren’t moved, presumably because the movement risk outweighed the chance of burning to death. But today, they were all moved out and it was quite an exercise, one which kp told me they did very efficiently and quickly.

kp said she was sat outside in her bed opposite from a woman who was halfway through her breakfast. She had scrambled eggs all down her apron.

Woman in Apron :- I was in the middle of my breakfast.
kp:- I know, I can see you were having scrambled eggs. You can finish them off when you get back upto the ward.

When kp relayed this to me, mum and dad, we were in stitches.

The Fire Brigade gave the all clear and every bed was moved back. 30 minutes later, exactly the same thing happened again. They put it down to a faulty sensor in the sluice area and it got changed.

This meant the whole day was running late. kp didn’t get her hair washed by the 2 nurses, instead Marie did it as best she could with a flannel.

Her morning tablets, normally taken about 9am, were taken about 12pm.

Today was Wimbledon’s Mens Finals.

A bit of a one-sided match, but kp managed to stay awake through most of it.

Her first visitors were due at 5pm. At about 4.45pm, I had a wave of extreme tiredness come over me, and I just had to have a snooze. I went in kp’s toilet (huge), laid out her bedchair and was out like a light. I didn’t wake up until the last 5 minutes of Bernard, Lilly and Gillian’s visit. Nothing personal !!! They had a good chat with kp who was in top form. They brought with them some photos of Karen as a teenager. Wow !!!! We are talking fashion !!! I will post to the blog over the next few days.

Then my mum and dad came. They could see a big difference in just a week. kp was much perkier this week having got over the infection that she was just starting at their last visit.

Mum told Karen that one of her friends (Betina) who is a nail technician by trade had said that when Karen is better, she would come up and give her a manicure. kp couldn’t believe that she would come all this way to do that for her. Thanks Betina !!

A funny incident to relate :-

kp :- So how is your company doing John ?
John :- Very well at the moment. We have just taken an order for air dryers…….

Dad sells lorry components and an air dryer is used in lorry brakes.

The conversation veered away from dad’s business for a few minutes and then out of the blue :-

kp:- John, why have you started selling Hair Dryers ?

Laughs all round !!

30 minutes after my mum and dad left, I started getting kp ready for bed. As I was doing her final turn to get her in a comfy position, I noticed a LOT of gunk that had gone all the way through her nighty AND sheet onto her gel mattress. Her cheek wound was leaking badly !! It was too much for me to deal with. It needed a nurse’s attention as there was so much exudate.

When the nurse came, she took the dressing off. It had only been changed that morning. Her wound was constantly oozing sluff and there was also what appeared to be some string hanging out of the wound. It was saying “Pull me out” to me, but the first nurse quite rightly said that we shouldn’t pull it out until we know what it is. The first nurse pressed over the wound and it just wouldn’t stop oozing sluff. She also didn’t know what this string stuff was. We both had a bit of a guess, but she decided to call the Sister. The Sister had a few educated guesses, and decided to call the Doctor. The Doctor referred it to the Orthopedic Doctor who pulled it out and came to the conclusion that it was hardened sluff. This whole investigation took place over 3 hours given that it is Sunday and the doctors are hard to come by.

It is likely that kp has another infection in this area and tomorrow they will take bloods to establish what the infection is, so they can treat it accordingly.

kp was knackered by such an eventful day and will definately sleep like a log.

Cracking Night Sleep last night. She said she slept from the last phone call she made to me (about 10pm) all the way through until 7.30am. Wahey !

She ate all her breakfast.

The bedbath was a bit of a let-down really, as I haven’t cracked changing the sheets on my own. But I’ll get there.

Unfortunately, the bedchair seems to be broken. I spent about 15 minutes trying to fix it while kp snoozed and then had to give in and report it broken. A nurse (Mr Vol au Vents) came over from Intensive Care to have a look but he came to the same conclusion.

Fingers crossed that we can get a replacement asap. kp was delighted it was broken as it meant she doesn’t have to go in the chair for lunchtimes. I am devastated as it means I can’t have a really good snooze.

We both had a bit of a snooze in the end and then the physios arrived. The senior physio worked on kp’s weak arm/hand, doing lots of exercises and then finished off by asking kp to move her hand in various ways. She can

• clench her fingers on request
• unclench them (but not quite as well as clenching them)
• bend her thumb at BOTH joints independently (which is good)
• identify which fingers he was bending
  and
• identify if they were in a bent or straight position when asked.

He didn’t ask her to move her arm at all on this occasion. But fingers crossed that this will come in time.

The senior physio then had to leave and the other physio worked on loosening up kp’s legs. After about 10 minutes of leg work, the physio moved kp’s right leg to a particularly high position and kp couldn’t help but fart.

We all laughed (including kp)

kp :- Sorry
Physio :- Would you like one lump or two with that ?

More laughter.

dp:- That’s going in the blog.

During the physio, the orthopedic registrar had come up to have a look at kp’s bottom cheek wound that had the problems the previous night. So everything stopped as the physio and nurses moved kp so he could get a better look.

The nurse took the dressing off and the registrar examined the wound and pushed the outsides of it, and loads of the gunk oozed out. He did this for about a minute until no more exudate came out.

kp:- Is there lots coming out ?
nurse:- Not as much as last night
nurse:- But, it’s better out than in.
Physio:- That’s right isn’t it Karen (referring to the farting episode).

kp got it instantly. It took me about 10 seconds to realise the humour. Doh !

The registrar is arranging for an x-ray to look at the wound from a different angle. Don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

Should know more later

kp had her X-ray this afternoon. The X-ray department wanted kp to go down to them, but the nurses were great and very persuasive at getting them to come to her with a portable x-ray machine.

The results are unknown yet. I think there is a slight chance kp may need a bit more surgery on this wound. I think I overheard the nurses discussing it and they may need to WIDEN the wound in order to encourage it to heal. It’s as if it has settled at the size of hole it is (about 1cm). It’s quite deep also. I have avoided the temptation of sticking a pencil down, or dropping a coin and waiting for the bang when it hits the bottom.

Foodwise – kp has done marvellously today. 9 1/2 out of 10. All breakfast, all lunch, half a dinner which I wouldn’t have touched and then had 2 slices of fruit loaf with butter and a cup of tea. Very pleased with that !

The bedchair has ceased to be. It is an ex-bedchair. The company who makes them has gone bust.So, the sister is trying to find the right kind of bedchair for kp and will order one from a different supplier. Hope it comes soon, as I miss wheeling kp outside and yes, I miss my nice snoozes. I hope the new chair has lots of buttons with some go-fast fire stripes.

Really cracking night tonight also. kp and I had some real good conversations about the future, coming home, practicalities and we both benefited from having a bit of private time where neither of us was too tired to talk. It was great !

She has generally had a real good day today. So visitors-wise, we are back on for anyone who wants to visit Karen. To arrange a date/time, please call Marie on 01642-284812 or 07961-346149. Thanks !

Action Packed Day – I just hope I can remember it all.

Good Night’s Sleep followed by a full breakfast.

Bedbath, Sheet Change, Dressings Change done nearly perfectly apart from :-

• One moment where I tried to move a sheet and caused kp a lot of pain on her head. I would have been hit had I been on the side with the good arm. Must remember this for whenever we have an argument – always be on her left side.
• Ripped part of kp’s nightie as I tried to pull it from beneath her. I actually don’t have a problem with this as it is only the frilly edges that make the ripping noise (not the nightie itself, which is fine). They shouldn’t make nighties that can’t be pulled from underneath someone without ripping. Simple !

We had about an hour’s worth of snooze and at about 11am, the 3 amigos arrived (Physios). Today Karen was going to do her sitty up maneuvre, which she was a bit worried about as she didn’t want to do any worse than the last time, i.e. she wanted to see an improvement.

Well, she has improved. It was wonderful, really wonderful, to see Karen’s BEAMING smile as, after 10 minutes worth of exercises to make her supple, kp could sit in the upright position unaided !!! By that, I mean they put her in that position and then the main physio just kept one finger pushed in her back, so he could detect if she was losing balance. She was thrilled. I was thrilled. All the time, kp was looking down at the floor to keep her balance or if she dared, straight ahead. So then, the main physio asked her to look at me (I was 90′ to her left), and slowly and surely she turned her head (maintaining her balance) until she was nearly looking at me. She did the same maneuvre to her right and eventually could turn her head all the way to me. She had such a big smile on.

Now, could it get any better than that ? You better believe it !! Because Karen’s chair is kaput, they had been given the go-ahead to try the hoist. It was felt her pelvis/hips would handle that ok by the orthopods. If kp can manage the hoist, she can have a real bath, real shower, and sit in a real chair !!!! So we wheeled her bed into the ward bathroom as her room doesn’t have a hoist in. And within minutes, this was the spectacle :-

Minutes later :-

The hoist has opened up lots of possibilities for Karen whilst on the ward, so we are really looking forward to them !!

Some rooms have a hoist built-in, some don’t. Karen’s doesn’t. But, within 30 minutes of kp managing the hoist ok, we had a new room for Karen allocated. It’s private (again!), own bathroom, and has a hoist built-in. She is moving this afternoon. For visitors, it is a lot closer to the main door. It is the room next to the nurses station, so she should be able to get all the gossip from the nurses’ chatter. If she can’t hear them, she’ll no doubt shout for them to speak up a bit !!

That’s all for now….oh, one more thing !

Marie and I saw kp’s x-ray of her bottom part of her torso. It is amazing to see all the screws she has and the plates. I got the ok to take a photo, but no sooner had I got the camera out, the doctor had put it away !!

She has 2 long screws in either side of each hip. And a plate running from one side of her pelvis to the other. It looks like a lot of rings linked together (more than a flat plate) and from this plate are about 12 screws heading downwards into the pelvis. Amazing !

That really is all for now, apart from a treat for bloggers (courtesy of Gillian (from the Shetlands) who visited on Sunday). Here are some photos she brought of Karen and other family members from earlier years !!

When Flares were in !

Quite a few of the family plus kp

Marie already giving kp a hard time !

Forgot to say the bed move is happening this afternoon. Spare a thought for Marie putting up 110+ cards on kp’s new walls.

Also….I received a very special surprise for Karen this afternoon. All being well, I will post more about this tonight.

dp

Karen is now happily in Room 2 on Ward 22. It is next to the kitchen and the nurses’ station and is a much more central location ! Lots more activity, but still quiet if the door is shut.

The orthopod doctor has analysed the x-rays and to stop the bum cheek wound healing he has advised a certain type of dressing to be applied to kp’s wound. If you imagine the wound to be one that you could stick your finger into, out of which comes loads of gunk, you wouldn’t be too far wrong. The dressing that has been applied is like loft insulation in rope format, and this has been inserted into kp’s wound to stop it healing up, allowing the gunk to flow out. The rope comes quite a bit out of kp, and it looks like a bit of touchpaper on a firework. But apparently, we are not supposed to light it, tempting though it may be.

The new room feels like home already. Marie has put all the cards up and everything is in the same relative position as the last room, which is great, as I get very easily disoriented. Until you look outside the room, you wouldn’t know it’s a different room.

kp was kn-ckered tonight. She had been down for a number of different x-rays. These had been ordered by the orthogod that is Mr Cross (from Sunderland). Lots of different and painful angled x-rays to ascertain how well kp is healing. Any movement on kp tonight was painful. I am pleased that her usual comfy position is still comfy so she should sleep ok.

The exciting news of the day is that I received a parcel at home tonight that contained a letter and cd from David Lodge. He is the chap that bought the Acorn Antiques tickets off ebay and sent an Acorn Antiques programme. He also said he would be sending something else that might cheer kp up, knowing she likes the musical Les Miserables. Well, he came up trumps and we are very grateful for his efforts and those of his Amateur Dramatic thespian friends. They had sent a specially compiled cd for Karen consisting of :-

A nice intro
A Les Miserables special
A “thousand years” lovely song (that suits mine and kp’s situation beautifully) and
“Over the Rainbow” which Karen really likes.

All of the above are SUCH a kind gesture and we both REALLY enjoyed hearing all your efforts. When I played them to Karen, we both had tears in our eyes at different points. We both laughed at the “Les Mis” twist, but felt a great deal of love when listening to the “thousand years” song.

Thank you SO much David, Gary, Gina and Mike !!!! You have brought a great deal of joy to us both !!!

Here is David’s Letter :-

Here are the songs they sent on the cd. Enjoy !
The Intro on the CD
The Les Miserables Twist
The Poignant Song
Over the Rainbow

Karen was fast asleep by 6.45pm tonight after a very eventful day.

Good Night’s Sleep. Didn’t wake up until I arrived in the morning.

Within moments of waking, she felt the aches and pains resulting from the x-ray moves yesterday. They stayed with her all morning. Any movement caused some pain/discomfort. I tried to persuade kp to have her first full real bath, but she wanted to be on top form so she could enjoy it, which is understandable so that will be another day.

Bedbath and Snooze for us both until physios arrived. Use of the hoist to get kp in a chair is much easier for all concerned including Karen.

The physio was hard given her aches and pains but she put on a good show.

Her left shoulder is very stiff which in turn restricts the amount of movement she can do in her left arm and moving her head. So she has to practice looking left and right every so often to try and loosen it up.

One of the doctors came to see if Karen wanted any more pain medication to alleviate some of the pain, but kp said she was ok. He also mentioned that Dr Cross (Sunderland back consultant) will be coming tomorrow to check kp over.

Excellent.

kp slept a good part of the afternoon leaving Marie in crossword land.

The Prof (in charge of the whole Stroke Department) popped in to see how kp was progressing. He had big smiles and was very pleased with kp’s progress, saying he had had good reports from various people which is great to hear. He said that he felt kp was over half the way there. At this, kp’s eyes lit up. I think she thought he meant timewise rather than medical-wise.

kp ate well today generally. Still a few bowel issues which she has been prescribed an anti-biotic and “Ya” for. “Ya” is what is written down on Karen’s prescrption sheet and is short for something else. My turn to set the quiz Ronnie. All answers gratefully received. The winner of the “What is Ya short for ?” quiz receives absolutely nothing apart from a bit of blogcred. You will have heard of it. kp had some “Ya” tonight and didn’t like it but I think she will persevere.

Uneventful night with kp still suffering from aches and pains but less than this morning, so with a bit of luck, they will have gone tomorrow.

Karen hadn’t had a good night sleep due to a combination of frequent bowel movements and an inability to get comfy.

This morning was not a good morning for kp. One of the night staff hadn’t helped matters by leaving kp feeling like she was a burden.

kp:- “Can I be moved onto my back ?”
NightStaff Member :- “You’ve just been moved 10 minutes ago”

I suggested discussing this with the Ward Sister, but kp felt that the night staffmember concerned wasn’t the kind of person who would respond well to criticism. Instead Karen is going to approach a member of the night staff she gets on well with and see if she can solve the problem in a round about way.

She had a good breakfast. I read out various blog comments and a letter from my Auntie Sue, which kp appreciated. In the letter Auntie Sue mentioned how much she would like to meet Mrs Overall. We know what you mean Auntie Sue, we are very fond of her also !! She is a little eccentric but VERY lovable.

Lots of tears this morning. I think the night incidents left Karen very aware of how reliant she is on others and brought home how disabled she is at the moment.

kp:- “I just want to be able to turn myself in my bed, walk to the loo…”
She then looked at a photo of herself, myself and our niece Sophie on the hospital wall
kp:- “At least on that photo I was just overweight…..”

For the first time she felt angry towards the driver of the offending vehicle.

The physio came in in the middle of the tears to measure kp up for a wheelchair. She was very considerate and offered to come back at a better time, but I asked her what she wanted. When she told kp :-

kp (in tears) :- I don’t want to be in a wheelchair, I want to walk !!

It’s hard in the blog to get across how down she felt this morning and how upset she was. I complimented her on how well she is doing and the fact that it was amazing that she hadn’t had more moments like this. But nothing I could say could really help. She needs to cry sometimes and readjust her thoughts as to her predicament and today was one of those days.

She instructed me to continue with the bedbath as per usual which I did, but it was quite sad to see her washing her face, cleaning her teeth and crying at the same time.

By the time the bedbath had finished, she had stopped crying and was ready for a snooze.

But no time for a snooze, one of the nurses came in to redress some wounds. Then the doctor to discuss Karen’s pain medication which kp had requested be upped. He also gave her a good counselling session about her situation. He’s great this Doctor by the way, very naturally concerned about his patients. He asked if she wanted to thump anyone. He was standing on karen’s weak arm side, I was standing by the possible thumping arm and told the Doctor this. It got a smile from kp.

The Doctor also said at one point :-

Doctor :- “You know Karen, you also have Yewt on your side” (Youth)

Nothing was said about this at the time, but afterwards, I was giving kp a pepp talk and threw in :-

“And you also have Yewt on your side”

Smile No. 2 in the bag !

No lunch for kp. She really wasn’t in the mood for it. In fact she only stayed in the chair for 30 minutes. I didn’t argue with her on either point ‘cos I knew where she was psychologically at that moment.

I hoisted her back into bed and got her comfy and she was out like a light.

The consultant came not long after and agreed about upping the Fentanol Patch to 75mg to ease the pain.

This afternoon or this evening, Mr Cross and Mr Nanu (from Sunderland) should be coming over to check kp’s pelvic progress. This should be interesting.

kp had fallen asleep immediately on my departure and hadn’t woke up until 5 minutes after my return. Poor Marie Again !!!

We have got to the bottom of why kp has had a bad couple of days. It is because someone had forgot to change kp’s Fentanol Patch. This is the morphine-based patch that gives constant pain relief. Coincidentally yesterday, I had asked kp if they had changed it recently and she said they had, but I suspect for kp it is very hard to keep track of time and every 3 days is a hard period of time to keep track of. Anyway it has been changed now, and she seemed to feel the benefit later tonight. The Sister was very apologetic about it, but we made it clear we understand that mistakes will happen from time to time.

Mr Cross came tonight. He was very very nice and frank. Here are the facts as I can recall them :-

• kp will need another operation to the back pin site (the deep one) to clear out the gunk and check all is ok. It is a minor op and can be done at gateshead.
• kp won’t be able to walk for another 6 weeks as the pelvis isn’t sufficiently healed, but he has given the ok for her to be able to stand for a few seconds at a time.
• He said it is important to get kp playing more of an important role in moving from the bed to the chair. They are going to get a banana board (?!) and try to get her to move herself.
• We mentioned the problems with kp sitting up for more than an hour at a time. He told us how normal this was for pelvic op people and that the medium term fix was extra padding (pillows etc)
• He said as soon as kp has mastered the banana slide, she could go home. But then the sister came in and was a little more pragmatic and said although she COULD go home, it would be better for her to stay here so they can provide the rehabilitation that she needed. kp was ok with this.
• He got kp to lift her legs one by one and told the Sister that they need to be stronger and suggested exercise with sandbags on her feet to build strength.

That’s all I can recall. He was great and we felt positive after he left.

Tommy and Eileen (our neighbours) visited again tonight. I was concerned this morning that kp wouldn’t have the energy for visitors and even suggested postponing them given her state at the time, but kp wouldn’t have any of it, and wanted the visit to go ahead. It was a good decision as she really enjoyed their company.

After that, we watched the telly for a bit, seeing the death toll of the London Transit bombings rise to 37, and then I heard snoring.

See you in the morning love.

dp
xxxxx

Important bit of additional news I have forgot to add in !!

Karen has MRSA in her bottom cheek pin wound (the one that’s oozeing a lot). Nothing to worry about at the moment. I don’t think it is anything to worry about unless it gets into the bloodstream. Betina (friend of my mum) has provided multiple links to creams that combat MRSA, but unfortunately we can’t apply them to wounds.

Good Night’s Sleep and Good Breakfast. The pain patch seems to have got things heading in the right direction again.

Snooze after breakfast before bedbath. She didn’t want a full bath, but she is going for that tomorrow – yay !

After the bedbath, we both had a sleep until the physios came. It was a beautiful morning outside so I was keen to get kp out for some fresh air. The wheelchair that has been ordered for her hasn’t arrived, so I purloined one from the corridors and she had her physio session in that.

Lunch followed physio and then we went outside. It was lovely, but by this stage, she had nearly been an hour in the chair and was aching in her cocchyx.

Back to the room and a hoist ride to the bed. Quite an uneventful morning really.

It seems like the bowel issue may be resolving itself according to Marie at handover.

kp was awake a good part of the afternoon which was nice for Marie.

It was a lovely day today. Hot in the sunny, but cool in the shade, so I thought I would have a stab at getting kp in the wheelchair and getting her outside. She wasn’t keen but knew she should. I could have persuaded her but didn’t want to pressurise her too much. We left it up to the toss of a coin.

dp:- Heads or Tails
kp:- Tails
It was Heads

We both looked at each other clueless. Unfortunately, we hadn’t agreed what heads or tails meant, so we had to flick again. Doh !

She said Tails again and it was Tails which meant she could choose. She opted for “no chair”, but promised she would do it on an evening over the weekend. I am happy with that.

The nurse came in and gave her nightly anti-blood clogging injection. I asked her if I could do that (it’s only in the stomach, not a vein or anything) and to my surprise she said yes. Excellent. I am finding it very rewarding caring for kp. The more I do, the better I feel. Given half the chance I would do this clean-up operation on kp’s pin-hole site. I could bring some hose in from home, turn the tap on and give it a good flush out. Nay problem.

She was very tired tonight and after a bit of pizza for tea was ready for a “comfy position”. And not long after, she was asleep.

Just had a phonecall from kp.

The consultant has been to see her to say they are operating on Monday morning to sort out the wound at the back. Apparently, there is an abscess somewhere in there and it needs a good clean out. kp isn’t looking forward to it, but she understands it’s one of those things that needs to be done.

Let’s assume a good night’s sleep from now on and eating meals fine unless stated otherwise.

Arrived early today due to more relaxed traffic, but it was hard to wake kp today. She carried on in half-awake, half-asleep mode for 25 minutes.

Bath day today. What a success !!!!!!!!!!!! She loved it. As well as being lovely and warm and a deep bath to get a really good soak, it gives kp a lighter sense of body weight which when you have sore areas must feel great.

So much better than a bedbath, and I think it will be the new high point of the day, after visitors of course !!

Shortly after the bath, she wanted to get into the chair and do her exercises, and then we had some lovely time outside. What a beautiful morning and in the shade it was just the perfect temperature. We stayed out there about 15-20 mins and before it started hurting we went back – the idea being we are going to do the same thing again tonight. Small but often. Yvonne is on afternoon shift with Marie, Adele and Abbie visiting.

Active afternoon with all the visitors. Abbie (8 year old great-niece) did her usual pampering of kp, which she really appreciated. She had built a rocket at the Life Centre (Newcastle) which she brought in for kp. It got Abbie into the final round of a competition.

Marie had a very bright blouse on tonight. Suffice to say, it was that bright and patterned, kp could see it with her bad eye, and when I close my eyes I can still see it.

kp + I went outside for a bit of fresh air this evening. She hadn’t slept much in the afternoon and she was falling asleep outside, but well done for going out love !

She was very nervous about her operation tomorrow until I explained that it wasn’t tomorrow, but Monday.

kp:- Oh, that’s not so bad then !

Fast asleep by 7.15pm