The week before Christmas

What a week.

Saturday Dad went into hospital - I've covered that already. Sunday afternoon I took Mum in to see him for afternoon visiting hours, and he was looking a lot better. Wednesday Mum went to visit him in the afternoon and while she was there the medical staff said that they would be sending him home the next day. Good for Mum she stood her ground and said that if they did they'd be leaving him on the door step as she would be out all day and there was no time to get carer arrangements made.

Thursday was Gran's cremation in Norwich. We picked Mum up, leaving at 8:00 and I drove all the way, both down and back. It was a nice little ceremony, with the 3 sisters there, Mum, Sue with Godfrey and Do with Allan. Angie and John made it from Colchester, then there was Godfrey's Mum, his older brother Clive with his wife Jackie and Do's newly wed son Jason with Claire his wife. And me and Suzie. Do had booked a wake at a nearby hotel and everything went off just fine.

Friday was last day at work, busy trying to get everything entered into all the relevant systems ready for the Christmas shut-down. At 10:00 Mum got a call from the hospital saying that they were sending Dad home. He turned up in an ambulance, on a stretcher, which the paramedics couldn't get through the front door, so they made Mum move all the furniture so that they could take him in through the conservatory and through the bungalow. Then they refused to operate the winch or hoist so Mum had to get him off the stretcher and into his chair - and it's this sort of thing that makes me so mad (she's 71 years old!).

Saturday was chores day - washing, tumbling & ironing. Sue and Mark did the shopping at ASDA. We all did our various bits of running around, which continued into Sunday. John came up to stay with Dad so Mum could go to the carol service at the local church - but in the end she was so tired that she called off. That's currently my biggest concern - not that Dad might pass away (that would be a blessed relief after all these years with MS) but that Mum is getting so worn out that she may precede him. She deserves a life!

Spoke to sister Christine in USA a couple of times over the weekend - she's thinking of coming over to see Mum & Dad for a few days. Right now I'm not sure that would be a good idea because he could either improve and she'd be left with a memory of how bad he is right now, or, he could continue to deteriorate as fast (or faster) than he is now and she'd have to decide whether to come back again for the final farewell.

Monday - I went down both this morning first thing (to see John before he left for home) and again this afternoon. This morning the carers were there getting dad out of bed and into his chair. He looked tired even though he’d just got up.

This afternoon he was still asleep following lunch. John walked Sheba this morning and I walked her this afternoon. The whole time I was out with her Mum said that Dad had slept and that she had had a chance to get 40 winks also. She looks drawn and he doesn’t look good at all – in John’s words, he’s gone down hill over the time John was here (Saturday 13:30 to Monday 9:00) so we’ll just have to wait and see. It may be the drugs he’s on (some powerful anti-depressants) which mum is going to reduce the dosage to him to see if that improves things. Either way Dad looks and sounds like he's given up the fight. He's even talking about "the other side" and much of the time he's not aware of what he's saying - like last night he woke Mum up in the middle of the night shouting at her to "get this food off my chest". Of course there wasn't any. Oh dear... I have a feeling 2008 may start off kind of rough.

Any way - to one and all I say Merry Christmas! – make the most of it and speak to you all sometime soon.