Monday

Juliette was just Standard Busy rather than Manic Busy when I got to The Home. She said she was OK though and feeling the benefit of a day off over the weekend.

“Great! I took the day off yesterday too. My brother and his wife did the visiting.”

“That’ll be why she’s shouting for you now then”

“Is she!? Bloody hell.”

Mum’s first words to me were “Are you staying here with me tonight?” followed quickly by “Where’s dad? Where’s he gone?”

She was in Active mode. All her blankets had been kicked off but she wasn’t that fidgety while I was there. Her speech was pretty clear but her conversation was all over the place. I can’t do full justice to it here because she talked non-stop for an hour and a half. Aunt Ethel, Aunt Lou and Uncle Terry featured early on. Then she talked about Barb and Roger.

She was quite insistent that she was going home tonight. Once I’d talked her out of that she began telling me about “That Other Woman” who had been given lots of stuff and she hadn’t been given anything. She was upset at how unfair that was but accepted the explanation that it was almost certainly stuff that was already hers being moved around.

“There were two horses out there this afternoon”

“Were there? Well I hope someone’s brought them in because it’s -4 out there now”

“You’ll need a torch. I think Lorraine brought one. Have a look in the cupboard”

And then her monologue moved on. I did get a chance, briefly, to relate the tale of woe with Lesley’s dad over the weekend. Her response:

“He’s a silly arse”

At just after the hour mark she said her face hurt. Like she’d been “hit in the face by a ball”. She indicated across her nose and under her eyes. I asked if it was her sinuses but she didn’t respond.

“Are you in pain mum? Should I ask the nurses for some painkillers?”

“Best not. They’ll only turn nasty.”

Then, a bit later…

 “Me eyes are playing me up”.

“Are they sore?”

No answer.

Her eyes didn’t look sore. There was no redness or discharge. I’m guessing it was an AMD thing because soon afterwards she was watching things float around the room. Some of them she recognised, others she had to ask me what they were. Or who they were.

She didn’t have a runny nose and didn’t feel feverish. She did say she felt hot though. That’s unusual. By this time the nurses were in their shift change-over briefing so I’ve emailed them with Mum’s symptoms. She’ll more than likely deny it all when they speak to her.

Terri was signing out when I got to the front hall.

“Goodnight NIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!”

“Goodnight Terri”

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