Mum’s the word

One way and another it’s been a day of sorting Mum out. I was just lazing in bed this morning, trying to improve the weariness I have been feeling recently, when the phone rang and it was the warden at Mum’s flat. Mum was still not feeling well, so could I go over? The doctor had been called…..

I went over after I’d eaten breakfast and after I’d phoned the doctor on my own behalf, having had a second opinion on my eye infection (my own, that is) and he agreed to give me an antibiotic for the both the sinusitis and the eye infection. Fingers crossed it sorts it out.

When I got to Mum’s she was clearly unwell but it’s a bit of a puzzle as to what exactly might be wrong with her. However, I thought it might be a urine infection as she was complaining of backache and she seems more confused than normal.

I popped down to speak to the warden, to establish what she had told the doctor. She had told him that Mum’s situation merited a home visit. Right. OK. And, apparently, Mum had been wandering the corridors of the flats last night, knocking on doors. Two different neighbours tried to help her, but she couldn’t remember which flat she lived in – nor could she remember the number of the flat either. They finally managed to usher her into her own flat and asked her if this one was hers. She wasn’t sure. She didn’t recognise her belongings. Fortunately, they must have recognised her from photos because they got her into her nightie and tucked her into bed. But, really, you can’t expect other residents in their eighties to be doing that sort of thing, can you?

I went back to Mum’s flat to try and make her comfortable. I had not long been there when the warden came down, phone in hand. It was the doctor on a telephone consultation. Ha! So much for a home visit then. We spent fifteen minutes on the phone talking through Mum’s symptoms, with the doctor carefully describing to me what he was discounting and why. It felt like he was covering his back just in case……

One of Mum’s symptoms is the shakes. She is not cold, but she is wobbling her arms and legs around uncontrollably. The doctor deemed that this was to do with anxiety. Hmmm…… well, maybe it is, but I’ve never seen Mum do anything like that before. Reluctantly, he agreed that I should take a urine sample down to the surgery for them to check. We’ll wait and see. If it’s not that, then heaven knows what’s going on……

Anyway, pills were prescribed and there we are. Over to you, Anne. I had to leave Mum while I sorted out lunch for John and me, and to take John over to Solihull for his final infusion. I shot to the pharmacy to grab the medication that had been prescribed, and then nipped back into Solihull to collect the ol’ man. “I’ll drop you at home,” I said, apologetically, “While I go to get some petrol and drop Mum’s drugs in to her.”

Mum was miserable when I got there this evening and, in the end, I decided to put her to bed at that point. She was still complaining of backache and then a bit of a headache. I promised to go back later on to check on her.

Earlier on in the day, I had contacted an agency that helps you look for care homes. Grateful thanks to Anita for the suggestion – it’s certainly taken the legwork out of the choosing. I shall have a jolly good peruse of them tomorrow and then make a choice as to which might be best. Certainly, Mum needs more care than we can give her at present.

Poor John has had to take a back seat all day, but he hasn’t been feeling too bad. Although I must confess I did hear a loud exclamation of frustration from him this evening…..oh, dear.

We decided to abandon ship on our beloved quiz tonight as we were overwhelmed with things to fit in before bed-time. Never mind, there’s always next week, isn’t there? Well, I hope so anyway!

There was one positive in amongst everything today and that was a surprise visit from Janet and Brian, bringing Diamond Wedding Anniversary cake for us. What a surprise and how thoughtful. Lovely.

‘Scuse me while I nip back to Mum’s now, but here are the COVID figures:

• 2,763 people tested positive for the virus today
• 45 people died with the virus in the community in the last 24 hours
• 11 people died in hospitals with the virus on 5 & 6 April
• And it’s Day 10 of the lifting of Lockdown 3; Day 380 since Lockdown 1; Day 385 since our self-imposed Lockdown 1

Take care everyone. God bless. I really do think things are going to improve – although they might get worse first…. fingers crossed that they don’t.