Day 112 - Thursday 18th August

Busy Busy Day today.

kp was knackered when i arrived this morning. When she is tired, she goes very quiet.

1. She doesn't say much and when she does
2. She is very softly spoken

I told her that Dad was very pleased to hear of yesterday's progress and that she had some surprise vistors on the afternoon in the form of Tommy and Eileen (our neighbours) and Amy and Niamh (2 of their grandkids). No time to lose, straight into the bath routine. This woke kp up a bit, especially when she had to dry/style her own hair. During the bath, we had a visit from a patient who has took a liking to kp + I and who regular wanders in/out of kp's room. Well, kp was in her birthday suit in the bath and she wanders in. Thankfully she didn't get past the curtain and I was able to usher her out. Within 30 seconds, she was back in again. She was looking for Steve, so I suggested looking down the corridor. No harm done.

Straight after the bath, it was physio. Another storming day today. Everyday she seems to surprise me. Today we didn't use the hoist AT ALL in the physio room. kp went to the standing position from the wheelchair, which was amazing. The main man was needed to ensure it all went ok. His input at the moment consists of coaching kp in how to stand and how to correct her position if it is out of alignment. At the moment, kp goes from sitting to standing, but doesn't lock her left knee and her bum sticks out (left hip alignment). When she gets to this position, the main man tells her to stand straight, pull her bum in etc etc and then kp is at full standing. On the last attempt, kp was doing 95% of it all herself. She is so close to be able to do it herself. I personally reckon within 2 weeks, she will have nailed standing. Once she can do this, they will then work on her doing the same thing but upto a swivel board, which is kind of a rotating standing platform onto which she stands, and then I can whizz her round 180' so she can sit down onto something different to which she stood up from. As soon as she can do this without help (or limited help) she can visit home, so she was well pleased with herself today and rightfully so.


Main Man and Karen

Another thing he got her to do was (once she was standing) to sway herself from side to side. This was very interesting, because if you think about it, she can't walk until each leg can bear the weight of her full body. By swaying side to side, she is working up each leg individually to bear her weight. Very clever stuff.


kp in "Turn the bl++dy camera off look"

So, physio was a great success. On the way back to the room, kp was pleased to be able to tell the nurses that "(she has) been standing herself". They were all very pleased

When we were back in the room :-

kp:- That was amazing. I was standing myself
dp:- It was amazing love. You did really well, but its not quite standing yourself.

WRONG THING TO SAY !

I explained that "standing yourself" is when you can stand without anyone's assistance at all. She has a different understanding of it, and I felt so bad for effectively knocking her outstanding achievement :-(

I ate humble pie as much as I could, and tried to praise her as much as possible. We didn't dwell on this and I think she is ok now.

Silly dp.

After physio, kp snoozed for a couple of hours and then we went downstairs to greet Tommy, Eileen, Niamh and Amy. They treated us to tea/coffee in the restaurant and Amy and Niamh were lovely and really gave kp something to smile about. They also taught us the meaning of loud and quiet. :-)
It was lovely to see them all.


Niamh, kp, dp and Amy


Eileen and kp. How on earth did they get a quiet moment ?

We had a real good laugh !

That's it. As we bid goodbye to Tommy and Eileen, the sisters arrived.