Mum chipper despite antibiotic resistance of infection

I went up to the nursing home this morning not knowing what I would find. Yesterday the GP had called me on the phone to tell me that the most recent antibiotics mum had used would not work because the infection in her leg is resistant to them. That went for both the IV antibiotics and the oral drugs. He also said that there was one more oral antibiotic drug that might work, and he would start mum on a course of them. But the nurses realised later that mum was allergic to this drug..

Nevertheless, mum seemed to be quite well when I went into her room. While we were talking to my brother on the iPad the nurse came to change her leg dressings, and despite the fact that we were talking with my brother I waved her in so that she could start immediately. She had said that she could call back later to do it.

The right leg is the one that is badly infected and there are two adhesive bandages: one on the right side of her lower leg, and one on the top of her foot. Both bandages are covering sores and the one on the foot seemed to be weeping in part of the sore. The leg itself is not as red and hot-looking as when I had seen it during her most recent hospital admission, but it is still pretty affected by the infection. It is the one that has stopped mum walking with me to the park.

We were talking about a faerie book that had come out in the 70s, when I was a teenager, which was a kind of catalogue of dwarves and elves. I asked my brother about it and he went online to try to find it, although he couldn't. Mum said she had elves in her room. I think she said this in reply to my statement that the book was so remarkable, for me at the time, because it so scientifically classified all these imaginary creatures. Mum said she had elves among the leaves she collected from the park and brought back inside. She's the only resident to bring assorted leaves off the ground back into the nursing home, so she's a bit remarkable herself in that way.

She told my brother that she doesn't mind dying, and that she'll just slip away. I think she said "slither away" at one stage, which was funny for us because my brother keeps snakes in his house. She said that she will just slide away when her time comes. "I don't mind," she said. "I have lived long enough. How old am I?" I told her she was 86. "Yes, well 86 is quite old enough, I think," mum added. We'll have to see how these latest antibiotics work. There is another option for her if they do not work, but I think it might be a bit intrusive for her. According to her advance health directive it might be a bit too much for her to handle. I can just imagine the fuss she would make if the hospital staff started to put a line into her neck.