It’s been a bad day…

Sorry guys…yet another migraine tablet today (thankfully it worked again), Mum’s worse and I’m taking her to the doctor’s tomorrow. Please God let it just be a bug that’ll pass and not prevent her from going into hospital next week.

On the plus side, my moggies are being nicer to me today (Button slept snug up against me last night, I was breathing through her fur!), and husband is helping me out with the garage bill. Oh, and I’m finally getting on top of things at work.

And it’s Friday tomorrow!

I’m afraid there isn’t Kitten Whisperer – I’m an only child, both Mum and Dad are/were only children – my extended family totals a number of far flung cousins, umpteen times removed that we’re not really that close to. We do provisionally have the respite care booked in a local residential home for the time in November, but if that coincides with or is too close to any rescheduled surgery – it’s all up in the air at the moment, and I really hate not knowing what’s happening (must be the control freak in me).

You’re right about the difficulties of caring, both in mental and physical terms. I’ve recently cut down my hours at work to 4 days a week to give me more time to try and achieve a better work/life/Mum balance, but it’s still so very hard, and I’m permanently knackered, hence all the migraines. We have been skirting around the issue of permanent care – in a residential home – for Mum for a while now, and I think it’s a serious conversation we need to have with her when this surgery is out of the way.

Thanks Kathy Anne – I know you’re right. It’s been a fairly fraught couple of years with Mum, and particularly so since last Christmas. I almost cracked earlier this year when Mum first came out of hospital after her long stay – they discharged her without any social services care package in place, having screwed up her psychiatric medication whilst she was in (this is the subject of a complaint currently being investigated by the hospital in question), so it wsn’t just coping with her physical weakness, it was dealing with the worst breakdown she’s had in years (aside from anything else she’s bi-polar).

I had some time off work, but as this coincided with her needing a lot of support at home, wasn’t really the rest I needed. I’m currently on antidepressants, tranquillisers for when I get too het up, and anti-indigestion medication as I’m getting stress related acid indigestion & reflux. Oh, and the migraines.

We now get help – social services call 3 times a day to sort out Mum’s meals, and Mum has a cleaner once a week – but I do everything else such as laundry, shopping, ordering her repeat prescriptions, doing her weekly tablet dispenser, finances, bathing, accompanying her to medical appointments etc etc- plus calling in every day after work to see how she is. My husband is great, but at the end of the day, she’s my Mum, and my responsibility. She’s implied she wants me to make the decision as to when she needs to go into a home, but that’s a biggie to take on board, as it’s such a big step. I wish my Dad was still alive so I could ask him what to do. Oh sod it, I’m crying now.

Evening all – just a quickie tonight. The visit to the doctor’s went quite well, and the theory is that Mum has a bug, which is being made worse by anxiety. All we can do is sit and wait and see what happens over the next couple of days.

As for me, I’m mightly glad it’s Friday – today’s migrine didn’tr try to hit until late afternoon, which is an improvement on the last few days, and the tablets saw it off again. It’s a good idea to look at a regular preventitive mecication, and I shall raise this when I see my doctor in a couplf of weeks.

Thanks TDKers, for all the advice and support xx