Day 186 - Monday 31st October

Another good night. Only got up once about 3am.

Nice lie-in for kp while I walked the dogs. When I got back she wanted another hour. We didn't have to be at the hospital until 1.45pm so no problem.

We had a nice breakfast before going back to the hospital.

Pretty much as soon as we had got settled in, kp was out for the count.



The weekend seemed to be a weekend of sleep and she was still tired. She kept questioning herself "Why am I so tired all the time ?". You're recovering from a near fatal accident, it's normal. Not sure she was convinced, but a phonecall from one of the other accident victims reassured her that the least thing can be very tiring.

One day last week, kp asked where the Daniel O'Donnell Physio (DOD Physio) was as she hadn't seen her for a few days.

kp:- Where's X ?
Main Man :- She's on holiday
kp:- She never asked me if it was ok to go on holiday. She may get a warning for that.

:-)

So, over the weekend, I had done my best to forget a hospital letter that looked semi-convincing. It was from "Paula R D Carron" (Personnel Manager), which I thought may be enough clue to give it away without being obvious. i.e. put the names the other way round, you have Carron Paula R D (Karen Pollard).

I gave this to the main man to slip in to the physio's in-tray.

While we waited for physio, I started to get nervous that perhaps it was TOO convincing and I was keen to get physio over with to make sure there were no hard feelings.

For the first time, Karen walked to physio with her stick. On the way we passed the DOD physio.

kp:- Did you enjoy your holiday X ?
X :- Not really no

She was unusually abrupt. I was even more scared that she hadn't realised it was a joke.

Once at physio, the main man started working on kp's left arm/hand, and for the first 10 mins, the DOD physio was rushing round not talking to us at all. Very odd.

She kept nipping in to a cupboard and coming out empty handed. Whilst she was in the cupboard, I asked the main man "Does she know yet?"

It turns out she did know, and was reversing the joke on us. Well, part of us was relieved, part of us wondered if she had took offence. She didn't know that we knew that she knew (sounds like a Friends episode).

After a certain cupboard trip, the DOD physio pretended to look at the hospital directory, and then dialled in a number.

DOD Physio :- Is that Personnel. I have received a letter.........

At which point she burst out laughing.

She took it really well. She had been nipping to the cupboard so many times, because she was going to burst out laughing instead of maintaining her serious face.

We all had a good laugh about it. I fear reprisals, but perhaps they are deserved.

After the hand/arm loosening, the main man did some unexpected moves on kp similar to the other day, where kp hasn't a clue where she is going. She did very well and didn't fall over.

After that, it was time for the timed walk. In order to measure kp's progress, the main man and I measured out a 10m stretch of the corridor TWICE. We measured it once with a 1m tape, and after the 5th meter, we had forgotten if we had counted 4m or 5m, so had to start again. We got it right second time.

The main man assured kp it wasn't a RACE and she should walk her usual pace.

She walked the 10m in 35 seconds dead, taking 40 steps.

So, we now have a measure for improvement.

Marie arrived just before 3pm. We had a nice tea party with her. She is feeling a lot better, but still not 100%.

That's it for today.