Wednesday, May 15th, 2013
I had to call in at mum's flat on the way to Wednesday's visit to grab the mail and sort out a few extra bits and bobs like dressing gowns and alternative night dresses for mum to wear. Walking around the place after it has been empty for so many weeks now was a pretty sobering experience, and I found that I had to get out of there before the melancholy overwhelmed me as I wondered whether things would ever return to normal ever again.
Before I switched into "Hospital Delivery Boy" mode, I did, however, finally remember to switch off the water heater as per a suggestion made by my sister a while ago, but, because I'd not been back there since, it hadn't managed to have been got around to. However, now that it's snowing again (at least in Devon), I did ponder later upon the wisdom of this.
Still, I arrived at the hospital on foot, having left the car in Sainsbury's car park whilst the Beloved did the midweek shop and saved me a couple of quid by spending thirty. After revealing to the other impatient visitors watching the clock tick past the appointed hour the "secret" entry code, I delivered the extra night clothes and went through the most official looking of the mountain of mail, and also gave mum a couple of the free local papers that had been also delivered. Whilst local newspapers are usually full of nonsense, those kinds of "local interest" stories do seem to interest mum far more than the gloomy and grave "national" stuff that seems to exercise everyone else so much.
As it was their mealtimes, there was only one nurse at the desk to answer what questions she could, and so I dutifully joined the short queue (translated as "I regretted letting the other bloke speak to her first...") to be told that there were still no results from the Ultrasound scan done a couple of days earlier and that there was a scheduled CT scan due to be done tomorrow to look at how mum's brain has progressed since the incident three weeks ago. Mum had already mentioned to me that she was getting another scan; "One of those where you go in the tube..."
Due to some mix up over telephone messages that I probably just never got around to listening to, two of mum's friends turned up and, because they were very swiftly having a whale of a time yattering away to each other, and I usually struggle to come up with anything new to say about anything, I decided to leave them to it and bid a swift farewell or three before slinking away back to the car (where the key breaks in the ignition, but luckily still works) to finally arrive home at the comparatively early hour of ten past eight in the evening
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
After work today, I have to make my semi-regular jaunt to the vicinity of Risley Remand Centre to deliver the Beloved to her Osteopathy appointment, and then we battled back through the frustrations of the Manchester Outer Ring Road system to drop in for a swift hospital visit before finally heading homewards to deal with the combined pain of the after-effects of that and the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.
And so, for the first time in quite a while, my visit is something of a "flying" one, as I dash over from the Sainsbury's car park again before immediately tracking down a nurse to see if she is able to tell me the results of any of the scans mum has been having this week.
The notes reveal little - the "full report" will come later I'm told - but there was "no evidence" of any "significant" tumours, which is good, but the Magnesium was down again and another bag of that had to be pushed into her intravenously today. There was still no talk of resuming the Warfarin, but, all-in-all they remain "very happy" with mum's progress and, as an aside, the nurse thinks that she's looking "a lot better" than the last time she'd seen her a few days ago.
My visit to the bedside is brief. Mum has slept well today and asks me how many weeks she's been in hospital this time (over four...) and, after a brief chat I am able to dial the telephone for her to make a swift call to the church office to request a "thank you" message be added to their announcements this coming Sunday, and I leave after having dialled my sister's number for mum so that they could have a little chat...
Friday, May 17th, 2013
The morning involved paying another of mum's bills as I pondered upon the small matter of how, with almost mind-boggling swiftness, another weekend has come around, although this week, I've decided that I really need at least one day off, and have decided that Saturday will become that particular prize, if only I can persuade my mother that it will be okay...
In the meanwhile, and despite the fact that I was running terribly late for various reasons, Friday's visit was pleasant enough, if uneventful. We chatted for a while, mostly about "not worrying" about what happens when she is released from hospital, and I asked whether mum felt capable enough yet to sign her signature in order that we could start to consider getting one or two of the forms we've accumulated recently actually signed during a later visit, and we dug out her notebook so that mum might be able to use the bedside phone and make a call or twelve to some of her friends.
The hospital staff told me that there was nothing new to tell me, but mum mentioned that the "eye doctor" had been to see her again and had once again mentioned interim care, and mum also said that she had been for a "long walk" to the entrance of the ward today, but generally, day by day, she is returning back to something approaching "normal" again which can only be a good thing...
I departed after dialing my sister's home telephone number for her and headed home, planning to spend Saturday doing as little as possible and hoping to recharge my batteries a tad...
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