I got a call from the nursing home this morning, about 01:45am. You might guess what I thought, as I dropped the phone and then rang them back.
However, it wasn’t what I feared. Mum had fallen, in or on the way to the toilet and her head had bled. She also complained of a pain at the top of her leg – so an ambulance was called and she was whisked away to HRI. I was told not to worry and that they would keep me informed. At 08:00am I phoned for an update and the day-staff, deputy-manager assured me that mum had been x-rayed and that nothing was broken. She was in fact waiting for ‘transport’ back to the home. About 14:30pm I was phoned by Cilla (the deputy-manager) to say that mum was back in their care, that she had eaten and that she was ‘back to normal’.
Phew.
However, what is ‘normal’?
For several weeks now, possibly months, mum has spent more time sleeping than waking and I’ve visited several times to find her fast asleep. Most times I don’t wake her.
Apparently, when my dad visits, she sometimes takes herself off to bed, s she knows she wants to sleep and somewhere deep inside, she also knows that dad doesn’t want to leave – so he can sit in the chair and watch her sleep. She has done that with my brother and his wife recently too.
Sometimes, she has woken in her chair and immediately recognised me. Just who she thinks I am, is still a matter of conjecture, she often introduces me to others as her brother, but nevertheless, she recognises me. We talk, but it’s fair to say that we don’t ‘discuss’ anything, as she cannot hold a thought for more than a fleeting moment.
Mum is a very frail old lady just now, but her core, her sole, is still very strong – she can still joke – threatening to give my brother Peter a slap the other day for saying that her hair needed cutting. When asked what she’d been up to, she mastered a fine line in sarcasm too “oh, today, I’ve been running around the field outside!!! What do you think I’ve been up to?” lol.
So what Cilla’s ‘normal’ is, I can only guess.
Failing to remember 