Nursing Home

By Nick Gilmore

Published: 20 Mar, 2024

Wednesday

Got to The Home late today. Always the same when I’ve tried to get anything done during the day. There’s always such a backlog of work to be done that by the time you’ve sat down to eat you’re already late.

As I was signing in at The Home the shift briefing for the night shift was wrapping up and some of the residents were taking themselves off to bed.

Eleanor gave me a lovely welcome as she came down the hall. She doesn’t fail to recognise me if she’s in the rear lounge but it’s only been very recently that she’s been able to recognise me when we meet elsewhere in The Home.

Mum was absolutely sound asleep when I got to her. Totally unresponsive. She didn’t look like she’d moved at all since her last pad change and that would’ve been at least five hours earlier.

So yesterday would’ve been the Peak Active point in Mum’s cycle and today was Day One of her Sleepy phase. My eldest sister is planning to visit on Sunday and in an effort to give her some idea of what to expect I’ll do a quick projection. Tomorrow should be the final day of Mum’s Sleepy phase, Friday will be the Calm and Lucid day and Saturday could be Peak Active Mum. So Sunday could go either way. Could be the tail end of Active Mum or Day One of Sleepy Mum.

Or not. It’s not an exact science.

 

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

You may also like…

Saturday

Saturday

Saturday Another early visit today as Lesley needed an afternoon off to go out to a birthday picnic. When I arrived at...

read more
Saturday

Saturday

Saturday I did Mum's visit early today as we had a trip to Lesley's dad to do. I did the greeting slowly and clearly...

read more
Friday

Friday

Friday A slow start to the day today. I was getting over the trip to Bristol on Wednesday, Lesley was getting over a...

read more
Thursday

Thursday

Thursday So yesterday, Mum had been uncomfortable, unhappy and uncommunicative. Today, she was less uncomfortable,...

read more
Wednesday

Wednesday

Wednesday Mum was starting to wake up when I got to The Home. A shorter Sleepy phase phase than 'normal'. She was...

read more
Tuesday

Tuesday

Tuesday Lesley had a full day with her dad today. Various healthcare professionals were going to be popping in and...

read more
Monday

Monday

Monday I was fairly confident Mum knew it was me there today. To start with anyway. She was very chatty. Mostly clear...

read more
Sunday

Sunday

Sunday Eldest Sister did the visit today with all three kids and youngest son's girlfriend. It was Girlfriend's first...

read more
Saturday

Saturday

Saturday Steve was in the hot seat in the nurses' office today. I popped my head round the door to tell him that...

read more

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *