Wednesday 26 August 2015

Mum recovers her health

After mum was admitted to hospital on Saturday it took a couple of days for the antibiotics staff gave her to combat the infection, to take effect. On Sunday she still could not talk, but just lay there in bed silently. By Monday she was a bit more compos-mentis, and was able to sustain a short conversation with you, but still tended to drop off into a doze at any time. Yesterday when I went up she was much better though, and had chatty conversations with everyone who would give her time to talk.

The hospital discharged her yesterday afternoon after I had left to come home. I will go up to see mum in the nursing home tomorrow.

Even though mum has been discharged from hospital she will still receive some post-acute care from the staff there, who will visit the nursing home twice a day for a week or so, to administer intravenous antibiotics. That means mum will have to put up with the cannula in her hand for the immediate future (she has a habit of forgetting what it is used for and of removing it herself contrary to instructions).

When I was in the hospital ward yesterday a physiotherapist came along to help mum with techniques for using a walker. Mum's walker was still in the nursing home - they didn't bring it to the hospital in the ambulance, of course - but the physio provided another one for her to use. Soon enough, mum was chatting in a lively manner with the young woman. On two occasions yesterday mum pointed out to me that the name of the woman she was talking to was one of the "short-listed names" she had had when she was having children, in case she had a girl. Mum told me once before that in actual fact she had wanted to have six children. Unfortunately for medical reasons that turned out to be impossible. So she never had any daughters.

There's just me. I do my best. 

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