Posted in Visits to Mum
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I've tried to update before but had modem problems then an entry I've just written disappeared... (sigh). Here goes again Mum is doing much better and has managed to fend off a trip to hospital. She now has the District Nurse coming to dress the infected foot, which is excellent as it means one or two more visits when Mum would otherwise have been on her own. We are also planning to visit both her and N's parents, and to have a visit from my sister and her family. Now I'm going to attempt to post this QUICKLY before I lose it yet again! Happy Christmas! |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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Mum has become ill again - it looks like a fresh occurrance of cellulitis but I'm not sure. I went over when I became concerned about her, and now she's in hospital on antibiotics. I am just glad to be back, and in time for H's 13th. birthday, but am fighting anxiety. I can understand that anxiety is a tool of the devil and the opposite of faith, but it's very hard not to be anxious. Urgh, I need some good quality sleep, not to stay up on the computer, but I'm not resting quite well enough just now. Still we watched a film Harry got for his birthday this evening and it was excellent - if you haven't read or seen Eragon, I'd recommend it. (I read somewhere that the author is home educated, too). By the way, who is 'anonymous' who commented on my last entry?! Come and say hi again! Yes, they don't 'arf grow up quick! |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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I spent a few days with Mum the other weekend and I'm pleased to report that, although it's hard for her to get about, she is mangeing it and is happy to be at home. We made some significant progress in sorting out papers too! Last Saturday I had a very concerned letter from Mum's neighbours which set me off feeling anxious again but N and I replied to it carefully and I realised that some of the issues they raised had already been addressed as much as possible. I had forgotten to update them, because N was ill when I came home and it drove things like who knows what out of my mind. He's much better now. Last weekend my sister, her husband and their baby visited. The baby is magic! She seems to transform even non-baby-minded people into her fans! Mum rang me after they left, full of praise for her, and generally seeming very happy that they had visited. They also took back some more of my sister's huge collection of books (the ones I am always saying would need a pantechnicon to move) so Mum can reclaim some bookcase space. Well, that's about it on Mum for the time being, except to say that the visit has inspired me to sort a few more of the papers here! There does seem to be some sort of paper effect though, whereby removing them gives them licence to breed... |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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I owe you an update... so sorry I haven't made it back before. There's no good reason apart from tiredness and a bit of time needed to get to this point mentally. Things are going a lot better - the big reassurance came from Mum's lovely cleaner who rang and told me that, having spent a couple of hours with mum, she was vastly improved on how she had been before hospital. Mum still gets very tired but at least she has accepted a couple of hours' help from her cleaner on another day so I know she gets some input three days out of seven. I do hope and pray she will make this a permanent arrangement and add in a Saturday, which would break up the long run of days when she manages on her own. N is soooo much better and back at work. Today he went for a cycle ride - the second since being ill. After the first he decided he had a way to go to get fit again, but after this one he seemed to recover more quickly, though I suspect he will feel it later. At present he is taking J on driving practice. H has a hacking cough but otherwise seems fine - I think he has whatever N had but it hasn't got as much of a grip on him. L has a cold - she seems prone to them as I was at her age - but I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. And it's spring. It's definitely spring. It decided to be spring on my birthday, which was a good day for it to happen! I no longer feel I am straining in the dark for something that looks like hope. I saw just one glimpse of it just a couple of hours before we had the phone call from Mum that set this whole thing in motion. I was tense and anxious, being unable to get through on the phone and knowing mum was in very poor shape physically, and N took me for a walk across some farmland and up into a little wood. There I saw sunlight shining through the trees on the path ahead of me and to me it looked like hope... nothing had had quite that effect for some time and it came just when I needed it, because after that came a time when I needed it. Now there are signs of hope all around: the white tips on the damson branches, the daffodils, the warmer air, the fact there is still daylight at six o'clock in the evening. It all makes it much easier. |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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Well, I'm back! I spent about a week at Mum's. The day after I arrived she had a fall and I had to call the ambulance out to get her upright. She refused further help and spent the rest of the day in a chair but in the evening we found she couldn't get out of it. She couldn't even slide onto another chair placed next to her. After two hours of trying and getting no-where, it was time to call the ambulance out again and, perhaps because she recognised there was nothing else to be done, Mum agreed. She was admitted to hospital and they ran all kinds of tests before discovering she had had a minor stroke and this seems to be what caused the memory problems. I think the inability to stand was due to exhaustion and arthritis. She is still in there and I spent some days at her place, visiting her and sorting out some things for her. I came home a week later to find N was really quite ill: he's now off work and on antibiotics for a chest infection, as well as a flare-up of a chronic condition that hasn't bothered him much for a long time. The hospital apparently wanted to admit him while I was away but he wanted me to have the time with Mum, and had the children to look after, so he refused. Today has been the first day he hasn't had a raised temperature, but I have had a bit of a job stopping him from being too active all along! He isn't good at doing nothing! The upshot of this is that I can't really go back to see Mum - my sister and her family went over the other day and a neighbour is feeding the cat for her, but I have to stay out of it for now. I get terribly anxious about these two invalids and it's been an exercise in faith and discipline not to go under mentally. I did crack up and raged at H for not doing as he was told yesterday, but I've apologised to him for that. N and I spent some time this afternoon curled up on the sofa watching a recording of Time Team which was really good for us - both of us stopped and just relaxed and I feel a lot better for it. I have been so tired! That reminds me - time for bed! |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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Thanks for the comment DeeDee :-) I am nearly ready to set off for the train... have spent this morning sorting out stuff at home so N doesn't have too much to do on top of work & keeping kids from fighting, and it's a glorious morning. The out of hours doctor came to see Mum at about midnight last night! There were a couple of answers to prayer WRT the timing. Earlier I had said to N (after hours of fruitless attempts to contact either Mum or her neighbour by phone) that if God could work out the timing for my clearance to come through for working with children (which it did by the lunchtime post on Saturday, after several months, so I could work with them on my own at Church on Sunday), then he could work out timing so the doctor could see Mum. Well, God did it again. He seems to make a special point of making things happen absolutely at the last minute, and I say that respectfully. So many times things have happened when it was really too late for earthly intervention, but still in time. Good for my faith, ha! Well, yesterday he did it again. I rang the neighbour at a quarter past ten - just as he arrived back from holiday. He literally had to put me on hold to let his wife in at the door! He has been marvellous and been there when I couldn't be. Then I had a phone call from him just after midnight to say the doctor had been, and to fill me in on everything, and after all those phone calls when I couldn't get hold of Mum, and another neighbour being unable to attract her attention to let her know the doctor was coming, Mum heard the door and answered it to the doctor! Even though it was midnight! I had just got back to sleep when the doctor phoned to give the same details I had just had (!) - basically she could find nothing physically wrong and Mum is otherwise mentally okay (knows time, who the doctor was etc.) except that she was worried about Dad being 'out'. She (the doctor) wasn't able to run full tests so J (the neighbour) has sorted out for Mum's own doctor to come after lunch today. I will also be there, so will M's cleaner, so will the nice policeman (like in books, LOL!), so will J, who has cancelled his plans for today, bless him, so it will be like Piccadilly Circus for a while! Anyway, time I went. Still nervous of course. I hope this is a good opportunity to get more regular care in for Mum and maybe make progress in various other directions. Most of all I pray it will be something that can be treated with antibiotics, and also that I can cope with it if she goes on insisting Dad's missing. |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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I have to go to visit Mum tomorrow - I'm really worried. We went last week (she lives at a distance), and she was clearly unwell - the house was hot but she couldn't get warm, couldn't sleep, was having a lot of difficulty walking. I have been worried about her ever since, though she rang after we got home and sounded much more her usual self - I assumed she had had some sleep. Today she rang to say Dad had gone missing - but he left to go to hospital about two years ago and died that May. She knows this, so when I gently challenged her and said I thought she must have forgotten, she said 'Oh yes, I remember that, but when I woke up this moring he wasn't there.' This is completely unlike her. She has since called the Police to look for Dad. I have called the out-of-hours Doctor and all the neighbours - I am hoping someone can get her attention to let the doctor in, in the next hour - not easy as it will be midnight! The neighbours are all being wonderful. I have rung and rung but she is very deaf and can't hear the phone. I feel exhausted: I'm going to have a quick bath and get some sleep - though they may ring me after visiting, even if they can't get in. Tomorrow I will get the train over there and the neighbour has a key so I can get in. Your prayers are appreciated, especially for her to get the right treatment and to have peace of mind about Dad. I guess I could do with some peace of mind too! |
Posted in Visits to Mum
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I am back from a visit to Mum and have been carrying luggage and shopping today so I expect to be achy tomorrow! However, I was glad I went as I was able to do some Christmas decorations for her and discovered her phone wasn't working properly - neither downstairs phone was ringing! She has plugged in an old phone now and that works. Her health is still fragile - although I think there has been some decrease in the infected area and I do understand that cellulitis can last a long time. It's hard to tell how she is as she suffers chronic pain anyway. Of course I feel terrible that she will be alone at Christmas but she can't cope with all of us for more than a few hours and can't leave the house either. At least I spoke to the lovely neighbour who has offered to pop in with a meal for her (she cooks for herself but it's the thought that counts.) I set off on Thursday from a bitterly cold Yorkshire with thick fog and hoar frost - by the time I got to Manchester the sun was shining, and in Lancashire it was noticeably 'warmer' - I was boiling in my three cotton tops, arctic fleece and overcoat, jeans, thick-soled trainers, double socks, humungous scarf, gloves etc! The first train only made it as far as York (replacement driver stuck out beyond Huddersfield somewhere) and the connection from Manchester was cancelled but I got to Mum's without any real hassle - if you are going to be stranded, do it on a busy station with plenty of alternative trains  I spotted a bargain in Superdrug in the concourse at M'cr - a mobile phone for £14.99 if you spent £5. Well, spending £5 was easy, so I got the phone - supposedly so Mum has a standby but if she finds it tricky, well, it's a cute little thing and I love gadgets, LOL. Now I'm home and had an attack of cleaning - serious cleaning not run-of-the-mill. I microfibred some wooden furniture (for those who haven't tried it, a damp microfibre cloth is great for cleaning all sorts - grubby chair arms are no exception) and bought some metal polish as I can't find the old one. Of course there are plenty of other things to clean and enthusiasm depends partly on my being warm enough, but there's something heartening about polished items! And tomorrow the days start to get longer, which counts for a lot.  |
