Mum's last day in the hospital

This is mum smiling bravely for the camera when I took her picture in the hospital this morning. Today will be her last day in the hospital. This afternoon they are moving her back to the nursing home where she will undertake palliative care.

I arrived at around 11am as usual - the start of Ryde Hospital's visiting hours - and she was sitting in the chair next to the bed. The nurse told me that she had eaten most of her breakfast. She had eaten all the eggs and half of the porridge. Then she had tried to get out of bed so the nurse had put her in the chair next to the bed instead.

Mum was not coherent when I came. There were a few words but mostly parts of words coming from her mouth. She was obviously confused. Whether she was delirious it is hard to say because I could not really understand what she was saying. She was pulling at her gown and dragging at a sheet that emerged from underneath her as she sat in the chair. The nurse told me that she had taken her gown off a few times already this morning. I kept on going over to her and saying, "Don't take it off mum."

As I had the day before I read to her from the first book of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle series. Today it was the two men going back to the house where their father had died. Despite the grizzly details mum seemed to enjoy it. Yesterday she had been even more vocal, and answered the questions that had popped up in the narrative as part of the dialogue, happily chiming in with "No" and "Yes" as the need arose. It was sweet.

Poor little thing. She will be back in well-known surrounds by the end of the day, and so I rang the nursing home to tell them she was coming back as I had received a call from the hospital to that effect. I got onto the deputy director and had a quick word to her. She said they were happy to have mum back. They are a great team of people at the nursing home, I am so grateful that they have been taking such good care of her. It makes my life so much easier knowing that they are doing whatever they can to make sure she is comfortable and cared for. I think nursing homes are fantastic places, the staff at my own place are always so responsive to people, always trying to give good service.