A bit brighter

Just back from the hospital and Ma is looking a tiny bit brighter, still not really responding to conversation and keeps her eyes shut most of the time. But I did manage to get her to drink one of those little tubs of orange juice you get in hospital (like the ones you get on an aeroplane) and also about 2/3 of a sucky cup filled with tea, so that was a good thing. I had a good chat with the nurses and they said that they are having real difficulties getting her to eat or drink anything, she has a line in to get some fluid into her but of course she keeps pulling it out.

They are hopeful that they will get her sitting in a chair tomorrow which is great.

She's definitely a better colour and less clammy than she was yesterday, so all in all much happier about things.

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Just a photo to add. Obviously the weather was horrible and I did think that I would be at home all day but then Peter decided to stay at home (not unreasonably I might add, I wouldn't want to schlepp across in this weather either) so of course I had to go out to the hospital. However, I'm not sure I would've stopped to find something to photograph anyway... So here is some mint to brighten your day.

Highs and Lows on a Wednesday

Today didn't have the best start with a full bedding and bed clothes strip required before it was even light. But once that was in the washing machine, Ma had been in the shower and the bedding was drying on the radiators/Aga and daylight was hoving into view, things seemed a lot better all round.

Toast, tea and yet more problems taking tablets followed before the bus arrived at around 10:00am and off she went.

I did some shopping for Betsy and tootled about with my camera for a while, came home, faffed around downloading images then eventually going out again to take a few more. Altogether a very satisfying day.

The bus dropped her off just before 5 and I settled her in the living room with her tea (tuna sarnie, Blue Riband, jam tart) which she did make a valiant effort to eat despite doing most of it with her eyes shut and dozing off occasionally.

Once again she had real problems swallowing her tablets, she's taking enough water in and sort of swishing it around but not actually swilling the pills down with it. So we get:

Sip - Swill Swill - Swallow

[burp]

CRUNCH CRUNCH


and then naturally she wants to spit them out because they taste vile. So more sips and swallows and yet more crunching. It's taking approximately half a dozen attempts to get rid of all the bits which is horrible and distressing for her. I need to check with the surgery if I can crush some or all of them into something to make it easier for her *makes mental note to phone tomorrow*

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Today's blip and the best of the rest here

Thursday Catch-Up

I cant believe it's Thursday already! I've been very lax this week on the blogging front, so... where were we?

Tuesday

So the 'keep Ma awake until a decent bedtime' plan worked quite well in the end. It was nearly 8 before she went to bed and disregarding a couple of attempts to party the night away, she slept through the night.

We were up at a reasonable time, breakfasted, showered and managed a trip to the post office early doors before the Vicar arrived at 10:30. He is a Chaplain to the Sovereign and it putting together a photographic history as a gift to HM for her jubilee - literally a one off publication. He's tracked down photographs of every Chaplain from the reign of King George V onwards and needs someone to help catalogue and input the data on each one *dons Librarian hat*. It sounds dull but is actually quite fascinating and many of the photographs are fabulous! We've got one on a camel, one in a racing car etc. Anyway, we focussed on that for around three hours and Ma dozed on the sofa. Clearly her new medication is having an effect in the mornings.

By 2 o'clock we'd both had enough data crunching and Ma was beginning to stir so Hugh dashed off (that man never strolls anywhere) and I sorted food etc. then eventually we went for a short drive, mainly to get us out of the house in some fresh air for a little while. One of us was very reluctant.

Operation KMA didn't work so well this time. I couldn't keep her upright with eyes open so gave in at 6 and tucked her up. Then again at 6:45, 7:20, 8:30 etc. She did eventually settle at around midnight.

I photographed an iris for my blip. Love the colours.

Wednesday

Day centre day. So off she went at 10:30.

I shopped, snoozed and photographed an egg.

Yes I know it isn't normal but my goodness this photography thing is addictive. Eggs are tricky to do as it turns out but I think I got a reasonable shot in the end. I must learn how to use the photo software stuff though, that way bigger and better insanity lies.

The bus arrived at 17:05, I presented her with her tea which she couldn't work out how to eat (sandwiches, Blue Riband, yoghurt), but I think a lot of it was tiredness because I'd manage to get her to hold the biscuit only to watch her slide sideways with her eyes shut, bless her. So in bed by 17:30 and not a peep until 07:30 this morning.

An egg blip. Here's the best of the other ones I did.

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Thursday... Well, we had a good night overall and this morning was slow and fairly quiet. Ma was very sleepy again, even after she had been through the shower and had some breakfast. I shoved a colour on my hair (and waited until it started smoking.... I need to be blonde OK? Just let it go). Then I did some desultory hoovering and waved a cloth around. Barry came this afternoon and we discussed dates for rolling respite and it looks likely that it could start fairly soon. After he left we had a quick out and about in the car.

Did you do any blithery for the stamps?

Shall we get a fly going up?

I think I’d better do it when the port was there don't you?

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Came home, phone rang. Awful awful news about my cousin David. If you pray, please do so for him.

Just popping in to say....

Normal service will resume on Thursday, I hope the new year has started well for everyone.

I've begun a new project for this year called Blipfoto. It's basically a photography blog where you take and post one photo a day for a year. I think that once the novelty wears off it will get quite challenging to find something interesting to photograph every day - at least something you'd be willing to post every day anyway. So we shall see how it goes, but if you'd like to see the first few of my offerings go here:

http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1621021

It's really worth having a toot at other people on there too, there are some seriously gifted photographers in and amongst. I've always loved looking at photography but my pictures aren't great, however I can happily lose hours and hours sifting through some of the stuff on there.