Friday

The name in the frame on the visitor schedule today was Youngest Sister. She was updated by Dr M.

The headline was that Mum was improving but she was still not out of the woods. The scan of Mum’s heart hadn’t yet taken place, but it was hoped that it would happen over the weekend. They needed to know if there were more clots so that they could give mum the correct blood thinners. Ideally, they needed this information within the next week. Dr M said that Mum had been more alert today. Although she had been asleep when Youngest Sister arrived, she had woken later. The infection was improving and they would be doing more blood tests to check on it. Mum had seen the speech & language specialist and they were happy, at this stage, that there were no issues with her swallowing. She also has conjunctivitis in her right eye, which is why it is partially closed & it is not caused by the stroke.

Mum had eaten all her breakfast this morning and her lunch, so her appetite had improved.

When Mum spoke it was very quiet, making it difficult to hear & understand.

Mum hadn’t been moved to the stroke rehab ward yet as there were still no beds available there. There were also 4 people waiting for a bed in that ward. However, the Dr did say that mum wasn’t quite ready for rehab yet, so the delay wasn’t an issue.

 Dr. M then added that although mum had shown signs of improvement, there was still a concern that she could go downhill. As there are fewer doctors on duty at the weekend, she asked permission to add to Mum’s chart that if needed, she could be given medication for pain, to stop her from vomiting, etc., so that she wouldn’t be in distress. She doesn’t need those meds now, but she wanted to ensure that they would be given if necessary.

We did had a round of scheduling visits that evening. I was keen that Mum saw someone every day to keep her spirits and it felt like we got better updates when dealing with the medics face to face.

My other commitments had changed drastically so I was able to pick up more visits. Lesley’s dad had ruled himself out of bounds due to a terrible hacking cough which we couldn’t risk passing on to Mum. So he had now been given the chance to prove to everyone exactly how independent he really was.

“I’ve got no idea where I got this cough” he said.

“But you go to the Day Centre 3 days a week – 30 people plus their partners and the staff and their partners and children… You could be wallowing in the germs from nearly 100 people. It’s obvious where you got it – the Day Centre!”

“Oh. Do you think?”

Bloody hell 

Author’s Note

My Mum is in a nursing home in a small village in the Thames Valley. The photo is not of the home. I used an AI image generator to give the reader some idea of the home she’s in.

All, some or maybe even none (you’ll never know!) of the names have been changed to protect privacy and hide real identities. If you think you recognise someone then let me know and I’ll edit the post or remove it entirely