Tuesday 21st - Friday 31st December

Tuesday 21st December 2010

We were going to take mums friend Bett in with us to see mum today but she has hurt her back so she didn't want to, she was also worried about the slippery roads.

Mum was really good today, Daphne said that she was moving about a lot with her zimmer frame, they are worried that she may have another fall so they are keeping a close eye on her.

I managed to speak to the doctor and he said that mum was just on her eye drops and antibiotics, she recognised us and told one of the other ladies that I was her daughter, we sat for a while chatting in chairs by the carers desk and then we got her to go into the dining room where we sat round the table with all the other ladies and chatted.

It was really nice seeing this and she even managed to say several sentences that we understood.  We stayed for a couple of hours and when we left she was sitting happily with the others.

When we were getting into the care we looked though the window we noticed that mum was getting up and on the move again!

Thursday 23rd December

Daph phoned to say that they had been into see mum and she didn't think that she was a good as when we saw her on Tuesday, she had taken her lots of Christmas cards and presents that everyone had sent in for her and the only one she reacted too was the one from Andrew and she asked them where he was, she said to Daph that she might as well go with them then!

Daph noticed that mum now had a pressure bed but not sure why!

Saturday 25th December  

We didn't go into see mum today as Michael, Linda and the girls were going in to see her so we decided to go in tomorrow.

I phoned and left a message to say Happy Christmas to mum and to everyone in the unit, the carer told me that mum was well and walking around.

Sunday 26th December

We met Laura and John at the home just after 11am.  I went in first and saw mum going into someone elses room I called her and told her we would go to her room, mum looked at me and said that we would have to pay to go in there and the carer said that 'No Annie everything has been paid for' 

We went to her room and helped her open her Christmas presents, she hadn't a clue what was going on, John came in with Laura and John, she asked who John (C) was and seemed fascinated with him, Laura had made her some biscuits.

Mum managed to get some sentences out, she said something about 'Lil and all the others' we walked her up to the dining room she said something about that she could always phone Daph!

We sat round the dining table with Betty (one of the other residents) and mum had few chuckles, she seemed happy we stayed until lunch was going to be served.  Joy one of the cares asked Betty if she would like a glass of Sherry so I asked if mum ever has a glass of wine, he said that he had asked her yesterday and she had said no, he whispered into her ear and asked her if she would like one and she said 'yes please' so he went and got her a small glass of wine, she took one sip and pulled a face and said that she didn't like it  !!!!

Friday 31st December 2010 

Mum was just about to have her bath when we got there, so I went and tidied her room up, found some name tags to put in her new clothes.

One of the other lady residents challenged me about being in mums room, I had to reassure her that it was OK and that it was my mums room.

Mum was pleased to see us when she came back to her room, she asked us where we were going, so John asked her what she would like to do, would she like to go out and she said that she would,  I asked it it would be OK to take her out and they said that it was fine, we couldn't get her shoes on her so we left her slippers on .  We managed to get her in the car, we only went for a little drive round but she enjoyed being out in the car, when we went through Ham Street she said that she thought that she had been there before. While we were out she asked John how old she was and when he told her 81 she said that she would have to go to the butchers!!! 

She saw Karen when we got her back and her face beamed,she went and sat in the dining room with one of the other ladies and they were having a little laugh together.

I asked Karen about the pressure mattress on mums bed and she said she had it on because of a sore on her heel, the chiropodist had been in done her feet and had put cream on her heel and the district nurse is checking it twice a week.  Karen said that mum didn't like the mattress and was sleeping in her chair, spoke to Daphne and she said that they were going to put her old mattress back on for her, she had asked the district nurse about putting a sheepskin on the bed for mum to put her foot on but she said they didn't do that in this area of Kent! Daphne is going to put something soft on the bed like a duvet for mum to rest her foot on.

Apparently mum had told one of the other ladies off earlier on in the day, she was a tantrum and making a lot of noise, mum looked at her at and said 'that's enough of that!...

Good visit