Thursday

Another visit by Eldest Sister today.

Mum had been awake and was talking to her. She noticed that they didn’t put thickener in her drinks any more and her diet has been changed from ‘Most & Minced’ to ‘Easy Chew’. They had also started encouraging her to feed herself.

It was the most alert she’d seen her in a while.

I found the detail they’d put into Mum’s nutrition and hydration absolutely fascinating. The thickener in the drinks was there to slow the passage of liquids through the mouth for patients whose swallow reflex was impaired. It helped stop liquids going down ‘the wrong way’

Seeing the change in the consistency of Mum’s food was interesting too. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself though and thought that that could be down to the staff’s increased confidence in Mum’s ability as much as an actual improvement in Mum’s ability.

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