Saturday

Another trip for Lesley to her dad’s today. Mum had started a Sleepy phase yesterday so I wouldn’t be visiting her today. That left me and The Dog to go on a long, muddy walk on our own. She’s normally very keen to go out but her body language this morning sent a clear “Don’t wanna go” message. Even though she’d woken me at half past three this morning to be taken out and had performed on the neighbour’s front lawn I knew she had to toilet. I got her out of the house easily enough but there wasn’t the usual bounce.

She continued to be a bit ‘off’ for the first hour. We started off with the usual check to see if Lesley was at the station but after that she didn’t want to take any of our usual routes. We’d start off in the direction of a standard route and then she’d freeze and give me an anxious “Please don’t make me go that way” look.

Rather than fight her and end up doing a walk that neither of us enjoyed I let her decide where we went. It was a full hour before she looked the slightest bit like our usual dog.

Lesley got back from Dad earlier than expected.

“He’s got his new meds.”

“Excellent!”

“He’s got to take them four times a day though.”

“Bloody hell. You’ve got no chance of that happening.”

“Yeah. I know.”

He’s been on meds for donkey’s years. Since his triple bypass. Ever since then his meds have all been taken once a day with his breakfast. Now that his dementia has got bad he can’t cope with anything that doesn’t fit that pattern. The meds he takes to manage the pain caused by his mesothelioma need to be taken four times a day. He’ll sit there in pain and not think to take them. He’s going to have the same problem with these meds too.

“And take a look at the possible side-effects…”

I used to be a research chemist for a pharmaceutical company and I know how even the unlikeliest complications need to be listed but even so, in his poor health and his susceptibility to the top ones already, it might be an issue.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. He won’t remember to take enough of them for it to be a problem.”

He’s got a meds review in a few days with his GP. These new meds can get discussed then. Not that it’ll help much. Even if he remembers to take them, he won’t have been on them long enough to know if they’re working or causing more trouble than they’re worth.

That’s if he remembers. He won’t remember.

“There was something else that was odd today. He told me he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. He said he often feels confused and he can’t understand why. Come to think of it, he’s said that a few times recently.”

It’s like Alexa is listening to us because the YouTube algorithm gave us this this evening…

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