Thursday

My day was spent collecting Lesley’s dad and ferrying him to hospital in Oxford. He said he feels fine and was more than a bit put out at the prospect of being, in his view, unnecessarily prodded and poked. He was there to get his chest drained of excess fluid and to have samples taken for a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis of mesothelioma. But he didn’t think that his breathlessness was so bad that the drain would make any difference. And, as he’d already made it clear that he didn’t want any treatment, he saw no point in having a biopsy to confirm a disease they could do nothing about. It seemed to me that while he still felt fine he could keep denying that he was very ill and he didn’t want to learn anything that would force him to change that. It seemed that that the door to special benefits and services being opened  by the result of a biopsy mattered less than that.

I don’t know what Lesley did to convince him but he went along with it. He said afterwards that the needles used were so big that he thought they were “going to come out the other side!”.

They also did more x-rays and noticed a marked difference from the ones done in January. Lesley asked the obvious question. The consultant said “Months”.

Lesley stayed with him overnight to make sure he didn’t get caught without help if there were any consequences from the procedures he’d gone through. It was just as well that cousin Sue was able visit Mum.

She took Curtis, her dog, with her. Sue said that Mum was happy to see him and he was remarkably well behaved, spending the visit with his paws on the bed looking at Mum

Sue took Mum her birthday socks and chocolate. She seemed pleased with the socks and ate 2 bits of chocolate.

There was mention of an Uncle Eric who Mum said she didn’t like and then she sort of shut down. Terry and Peggy were about along with little ones in the bed with her who were sleeping,.

Mum talked a little about cake making and how she would bake a cake for uncle George. She was quite chatty a  lot of which Sue couldn’t understand. Mum talked of Brother and me. There was a Nicholas in bed with her sleeping. Mum spoke of Eldest Sister too and the 3 children,

Sue stayed about an hour and a half. At one point all 3 of them nodded off. Then Curtis did another lap of the lounge saying goodbye to most people. 

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