Mum still in the hospital ward

Up at Ryde Hospital this morning mum was content enough but lacked some of that upbeat spark she has when she's really feeling well. Maybe it was just a bad day for her. She has been in the hospital this time for about a week but the release date has been pushed back because the doctors wanted to make sure about the infection before that step is taken. At the moment it looks like she'll be released on Tuesday but there's no absolute guarantee of this.

She seemed a bit dull to me today. I arrived at the start of the morning visiting hours and when I got there she was on the loo. When she got out she padded back to the chair next to her bed and sat down. I gave her the doughnut I had bought her and she ate the whole thing. We didn't talk much because she was not in the mood apparently - I didn't press her - but she was a bit confused, saying some things that suggested she had been delirious. "I'm working for the government," she said. "And I'm working for the wife of the person who runs the Opposition. Whose name escapes me. I'm terrible with names, I really am."

That was all she said but it was a bit strange. The last few times this week I had seen her there was nothing like this. She went to move her bowels later in the morning and when she came out of the bathroom she sat in another chair, in the corner of the ward room. She just sat there hunched over like she does sometimes in the nursing home, when she's not feeling tip-top. She came back to her bedside though when I asked her to, because I didn't want her to make the other person in the ward uncomfortable. When lunch came she ate a bit while I was sitting there. Then I went out to get something for myself to eat. When I came back she had opened the sandwich and the container of fruit, but she refused to finish her meal or touch either of these two items again. She opened the ice-cream and ate most of it, however.

I had to leave not long after she finished with her lunch, because visiting hours in the morning only go to 1pm. Overall I thought she looked a bit subdued. Not at the top of her game. She snapped at me for suggesting she eat more of her lunch, but otherwise conversation was not very lively.