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

<< "that's my daughter, I don't know what I'd do without her" >>

So now you know what she really thinks of you. I bet that made you feel better

Websailor

Indeed, I just wish she'd say it to my face though!

Mum's INR was spot-on yesterday so she'll get a respite from the blood-letter next week

The lunch carer today walked in while Mum was tucking into my Masterchef special dessert of a Brandy Snap basket filled with fruit pieces, covered in mango & passionfruit yogurt, topped off with a scoop of banana split ice cream. She declared Mum was spoiled!

So what if your Mum ate it Sounds Yummy

My Mum used to swank about me to friends but never said a good word to me face to face so I know what you mean.

Websailor

aren't we all the sameonce and only once our next door neighbour said to me mam, is Roy poorly ? mam asked no and why ask, he replied he's said something good about "Prof" about the idea he's had for a garage lean-to also mam was actually shocked at dad's statement as well

I dropped Ian off home this morning then toodled along to Mum's...only to find her trying to open the curtains (she can't reach them anymore and she has no strength to pull them open). The morning carer, due at 8am, hadn't turned up so I set to and did everything from dress Mum to empty/clean the commode and make Mum's breakfast THEN the carer turned up, a new carer (for Mum) apologised as she'd been delayed due to having to call an ambulance for a previous call and having to stay with them until she was carted off to hospital due to her car being unable to move due to the ambulance driver parking too close to her car. I asked if she'd let on-call know? Yes, she rang them to ask them to find someone else to cover Mum's call. They didn't ring her back so she carried on with her calls, just 90 minutes late! Thing is, Farringfords KNOW my mobile number, and I could've been there an hour earlier myself, if only I'd known.

Gosh -if it's not one thing it's another. You are certainly getting a Zen workout. Maybe you can set up your own ashram.

We had the annual review this week. When she saw my Care Plan for Mum, the woman from Farringfords asked me if I wanted a job! I said it's a full time job looking after Mum, and she understood. I was there at 9am as I gave Ian a lift home at 8.30am and it wasn't worth coming back home. Mum must have asked me ten times, what are your plans for Easter. I told her the first time, Helen is here (staying with her sister) and I'm seeing her Monday for lunch, then we'll be going to visit Mum. Each time I repeated...she said Oh yes, you've already said that

In the 4 hours I was there I stripped her bed, replaced with fresh bedding, did 2 lots of washing, watered the plants inside and outside, wrote out a new log for the Farringfords carers as there's only one page left in the current one, cooked her lunch with added cauliflower and mushrooms, prepared a Brandy Basket with fruit, Ambrosia custard and a scoop of banana split ice cream topper. She got up to collect her post when it arrived, and opened her 4th Easter card. While she was up I took the chance to weigh her, she's 44kg, that's a 2kg increase in a month I must be doing something right!When I was leaving, I said Yvonne was calling to see her later today and Rob & Rachel are going round tomorrow. I said "Aren't you lucky? You get more visitors than me!" Without batting an eyelid she retorted: "That's because you're always out!"

Nowt like Yorkshire logic, is there?

"watered the plants inside and outside" did you have to cut a split down each stem, to get the hose in ?


Yorkshire logic

My Mum needs things repeated endlessly too. And she's the same - says "Oh yes, you just told me that" each time One of my brothers refuses to repeat himself and tells her that she's already asked him the question... which really distresses her My mother may be a but she's still a person, if that makes sense. I hope if and when I start losing my marbles people will be gentle with me.

Ha! What do I mean "if and when"... it's already happening

Anyway - what this ramble is all about is that I am impressed by your patience and dedication GB. You're gathering some good karma here...

Fb

You certainly are amazing. Don't wear yourself out. Never mind a job at the care place, you ought to be running it and training the staff.

My mum forgets things. But she doesn't say "You just told me that" - She says "Did you just tell me that?". She doesn't always remember what went on 5 minutes ago and asks the same question again and again, too. A neighbour of hers said he doesn't like to comment on it because he's worried that she (or his own mother, come to that, who's the same) will think she's becoming useless if you point out to her that she's forgetful. So he just glosses over these repeated questions. I don't know what the right thing to do is, really. I tell her I had just told her that, because that's how we got on to the subject of (whatever it was we were just talking about).

I keep telling myself I should write e-mails much more often - even daily - that way she can refer back to them. Just short e-mails with one piece of information in each should be about right, perhaps with a photo. So next time I'm in a conversation here, and am on my laptop at home, I'll try and remember to do that.

Your Mum reads email? Or have I misunderstood? My father did get a computer and both of them took up computing lessons at a local school which offered adult classes, that must have been about 20 years ago. I remember Dad liked to go on the Internet, he signed up here because he loved to read the new articles on the Front Page, he was very proud of me for being a volunteer writer. But to my knowledge, even when they had 'net access at their house, my mother never ventured onto the Internet. She'd look at photos my Dad downloaded from their children/grandchildren's holidays, and she sometimes played a game like Solitaire. The Internet was removed after Dad passed away. The computer was removed a few years later, after we realised that Mum was never going to "I'll get back to it sometime". I have Dad's computer desk

I've tried to encourage Mum to read, her only attempt is with the weekly TV mag, I insist she changes it over to the correct day if she hasn't already, but in a joking way, "You're still on Sunday!" I'll say on Monday. She chafes at her own forgetfulness but at least that only happens once a day as she turns the page straight away. My younger brother is much the same, hasn't the patience to repeat himself. He says they've already had that conversation and suggests something else to talk about.

She has enjoyed the news this week, at least the rolling news on baby Prince George in NZ and Australia has stopped her asking me how he is (as if I have a direct line to the Palace)

My younger brother is much the same, (<--- as Frenchbean's brother)

my mates in the Buff Lodge and home area say that "if" I ever got mad cow/dementia or alzheimer's,no one would know because I'd just be the same as I am now

no disrespect to anyone intended.

We'd still love you the same

ta love

Oh goodness.... Prince George or "Baby Prince George" as all the media here are insisting on calling him I am over them

One of my Mum's best friends has just died.. she's running out of friends as they drop off the perch which her body refuses to let go of. She's wanted to be dead for the last five years, but her vital organs all appear to be in good fettle for a 92-year-old and aren't cooperating with her brain at all. She's muddled and can't do numbers/dates any more and she's disabled - in a chair all day. It's a horrible situation. Mind you, she isn't beyond using her situation to continue to manipulate the family which she's done all our lives I guess it's the only way she knows how to operate. Glad I'm the other side of the world.

That's why I'm so impressed with you GB. I know if I were trying to do the same for my mother I'd be in the madhouse by now.

Fb

's don't only live in heaventhere's countless numbers living on the planet earth

What the Prof said

I had such a lovely day today. Lunch with my two beautiful daughters then on to Mum's with Helen. She stayed an hour then had to head back to Manchester, so I hung on for my sister to arrive, good job as the tea carer arrived first and Yvonne fetched a plate of food she'd saved for Mum. Yvonne made fresh gravy and Mum polished off the lot!

Someone had taken off the washing I'd left on the airer on Saturday and folded it into the laundry basket. On the dining room floor. No doubt they didn't think it was a trip hazard for a 94 y.o. half-blind person.

You win some and lose some. I guess you have to be about it.
I am glad that your mum finally is getting her appetite back.