h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What great news! Best to your uncle!

I knew that would go down well

I only have to hear his voice and I feel like a little girl again. Such a big connection to my childhood. I am glad he met Ian last year

Of course I will Dmitri (still looking for my tv debut on the 'web)

Will try and catch it if I can. Not my favourite programme but I might get lucky, if I am home!

Love the accent that comes across in your writing

<cheers.

Websailor

Dmitri can you get this programme? http://www.itv.com/hub/the-chase/1a7842a0970

Alas, it requires you to be an ITV subscriber.

WOW! and "we" celebrated mam's 90th last Saturday, tell your mam to slow down and our's will catch up

It's my habit when I get her up on a Thursday & she's eating her breakfast to go through the (external) carers log. One caught my attention, (I know her name) **** logged in at 19.55 and got Mum ready for bed. **** logged out at 19.25. I'm going to lie in wait next time she is due and then borrow her (I'll have it back before she realises it's gone)

The poor lass has blisters on her leg and red marks on both arms. I went straight to phone the GP surgery and the GP was there within 2 hours, prescribed an antibiotic/steroid cream which I went to collect after her lunch, I have added it to the meds sheet, I just hope the carers administer it each morning and night call. *fingers crossed*

The cream made the blisters worse and the carers stopped administering it. I rang the GP surgery and requested the same antibiotic she had had before, which was waiting for me when I went to the chemist attached to the surgery. A week on that and the blisters all dried up. I checked her all over yesterday when I bathed her, no blisters or red marks, but there are purple/brownish marks where the blisters where, like footprints of the blisters. That didn't happen before

My sister looked at them today, flap, flap, googled "skin cancer" images and is convinced that is what Mum has.

The blisters have dried up and gone but the brown marks are still there, the skin is dry and crusty. I'm putting E45 anti-itch cream on them. I found some images which compare it to bullous pemphigoid but I can't find any mention of the aftercare. Mum seems fine in herself.

The care agency continues to fail us, on Saturday rather spectacularly. My brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Nottingham so I cancelled the lunch, tea and night calls (as I would get Mum ready for bed after their departure, administer meds, close curtains, put commode out, lock up, etc).

All went well, I left Mum in her pjs snuggled under a blanket on her reclined chair with a tot of Brandy by her side awaiting Strictly then she would put herself to bed only needing to turn off the tv and living room light (she sleeps in the converted dining room).

I turned in on Monday morning to find the Saturday carer had attended after I left (a cancelled call, you remember), fed Mum a salad, cup of tea, and gave her meds. Putting the 3mg of Warfarin in the Sunday 6 November box and signing it even though it was Saturday 5th November and I had already administered 3mg of Warfarin. It beggars belief that she didn't think it strange that Mum was already in her pyjamas, which is the job of the night carer (and why not give me a call - my phone number is at the front of the carer log and I never mind the girls calling me)

The District Nurse had beaten the morning carer (Monday, I was in Cleethorpes shopping for Mum's bits from Boots) so the DN had tried to phone my landline, no reply, when Mum told her I usually get her up but I was late. I can only imagine how those DNs must think of me I arrived as the morning carer was leaving - 10.15, and when I had read what had gone on on Saturday night I rang the office to report the double dose of Warfarin and the receptionist apologised and offered to phone the DNs for advice, I said they had just been to take her blood for INR and she said "What was the result?" I said we'd have to wait until tomorrow (now today) so I am pending a phone call from the GP surgery and praying for no detrimental INR score

As expected, the INR is 4.2, way too thin thanks to the double dose of Warfarin on Saturday

Retest ordered for Monday, with Warfarin drastically reduced this week.

indeed... That is scary not to have noticed the date on the log, as that is the whole point of the log in the first place, to ensure that each task is done exactly once...

How about a LARGE notice placed atop the log saying something like: READ THE LOG!!!

I despair of carers and nurses, I really do. It is no better down here.

Hope it gets sorted soon,

Websailor

An amendmemt for the notice on the log:

"READ the LOG!"

"This MEANS !!!-ME-!!!"

This week sees the 4th anniversary of Mum's collapse and seemingly imminent demise. Yesterday she was chatting about her upcoming 100th birthday and getting a card from the Queen (Mum will be 98 in October). As Ian regularly says, it ain't over until the fat lady sings

I did her shopping last Tuesday and dropped it off, made her a cuppa and asked if she was glad to be home and sleeping in her fresh bedsheets (after my sister took her on Xmas Eve to her house for Christmas Day & Boxing Day, I brought her home Boxing Day night, I stripped her bed & remade it). "What? I haven't been anywhere!" "You went to Yvonne's house and stayed 2 nights, Mum" "That was last week!" "I brought you home yesterday Mum" "Oh did you? I lose track of the days. What day is it?" "Tuesday, I've just brought you some shopping. Enjoy your day at the Curzon Centre tomorrow". [Thursday morning] "Did you enjoy the Curzon?" "Yes, I actually won the raffle, first time ever!" "Great!" "I thought you would call yesterday" "You were at the Curzon yesterday Mum, I never call on a Wednesday" "Why not? I thought you'd come after" "I come see you four days a week Mum, can't you be grateful I do that?" "Should be seven!" "Should it? How often did you visit your mother?" "Not enough according to her!" "You went to see her every Sunday, you used to plate her up some of your lovely Sunday dinner roast and take it for her tea". "Oh yes I remember" "Once a week, Mum". [no reply] {closes eyes, falls asleep} *wakes up* "Hello love, what day is it?"

That's very much like my mother; she gets the days muddled up and says she hasn't seen my sister for a week when I had spoken to them both on the phone the day before. But my mother is not physically impaired at all, and we are very lucky there. You are an and have a far heavier burden. I wish you all the best and continued strength in the new year.

thank you, I'll need it I think. I am 62 in May and the thought of another year of caring/running two homes really fills me with dread.

She is still going strong. Her friend who lives two doors away, who was in the habit of waving to Mum when she passed the front window, is now getting carers visiting and according to their immediate neighbour, family have been visiting every day since Christmas. This lady is 82, and when I told Mum, she said she was sorry to hear that but (her friend) is "an old woman who has had her time".

Ian laughed when I repeated that to him

Ian's brilliant to laugh about that. Sometimes, our nearest and dearest say things that curl our hair...

My mother was annoyed at my dad's parents once. My grandparents were ancient hill farmers from Tennessee. They were up visiting my parents, who lived at the time in the highly idiosyncratic 'city' of Elmira, New York. Actually, they lived in nearby Horseheads, but that's another story...

Anyway, after a rather interesting service at the antique church there - where half the congregation was over 80 - my grandmother demanded to know something or other about 'that old man who led the prayer, and started crying.' Well, Mr Goodenough *was* sort of peculiar, but in Elmira, NY, how could you tell?

Anyway, my mom thought it was awful that my grandmother called Mr Goodenough 'an old man' - they were about the same age.

I replied, 'That doesn't mean she thinks she's not old herself. She's just naming a fact.'