Hi everyone,
Spamar, I agree - eating by yourself isn't the best - in South Wales last week, I had to eat alone in the hotel dining room, and though the food was lovely, sitting by myself I just ate and got out, and I don't think you enjoy food as much when you do that.
Slugsta, good luck with the house selling and buying - I have fingers and toes crossed that it goes with as little stress as is possible x I hate to say it, but it sounds like incontinence has arrived for your Mum, as abruptly as it did with Mil - though Mil is still mainly dry during the day, the night time incontinence started pretty much out of the blue and once it started, that was it, she was wet just about every night
If you can get a sample to the GP, it might be worth checking if she still has a UTI (as I'm sure you know, some can linger and take more than one lot of AB's to shift). And is there any chance she will accept kylies tucked around the seat covers/cushions, to protect her furniture?
JM, that looks amazing! 10 years ago, I would have loved to have a go at something like that, but I know that now there is no way I could manage it physically - would still really enjoy watching it though! Had some great shots of the kayaks on the river in LLangollen - but that looks way, way more exciting
Thanks Peggy and Sleepless, and I agree with with you guys and everyone else, that the issues with the washing are not acceptable. Those soluble bags looks like a good idea - IF the staff will use them
The hospital has large carrier bags, with the word 'laundry' printed on them, and they put Mil's washing into one of these bags. Sometimes, wet/soiled stuff is put into a separate bag, which is occasionally tied with a strip of plastic, more often the top of the bag is just folded over, and then that bag is put into another bag that contains the rest of Mil's clothes. But just as often, the wet stuff just goes directly into the one bag, with her day clothes, and nothing is sealed. 2 or 3 days with it all sitting in a plastic bag like that, and the smell is absolutely foul. The 'missing clothes' is frustrating - I know that she has around 15 tops there, usually 2 cardigans, about a dozen bra's, up to 8 nighties and 3 pairs of 'light' pj's, 2 'light' dressing gowns and about 12 pairs of trousers - I was told that she was 'nearly out of clean clothes' when I picked the last lot of washing up on Saturday, yet the bag contained far less than half (with the exception of the nightwear) of the clothes she should have there. When we go today, I'm going to ask to go and check the clothes in her room, I know her case is kept on top of the wardrobe (to stop her packing it) and I am hoping that there are a lot of her clothes in there - if not, then I am going to be firm about asking them to find any missing items. One or two things gonig walkabout is I guess, unavoidable - any more than that, and I will be cross!
Had a really busy couple of days. Yesterday, a return journey to London for work, to visit head office and be introduced to the staff there - to be fair, the organisation are very big on making sure that their 'home workers' get to meet the staff they are likely to have at least phone or email contact with - they say its nice for us to 'meet the faces' and they don't want us to feel isolated. Once again, met a lot of extremely enthusiastic people, very positive and welcoming and helpful - staff moral seems very upbeat and it all feels very guenuine, whioch is lovely. Have local meetings on Wednesday, off to Manchester on Thursday, then London again next week (might be an overnighter) a couple more meetings, and somehow, have to fit in a visit to one of the IT hubs to get all my IT equipment up and running.
On Sunday, OH suggested a zoo run, just for the afternoon - I should have said no, because I've had a few bad days with aches and pains . . . but, I knew that a second baby zebra had arrived and (even better, 'cos they are amongst my favourites) Wallace and Annie, the Asian River Otters, had just introduced their 5 absolutely adorable babies to the public, and I was dying to see them. Between the zoo and yesterdays travelling and walking, I'm really paying now (not a lot of sleep last night, in too much pain
) - but hopefully that will ease, and as I got to see both zebra calf and otter cubs, for me it was worth it.
Today, hopefully visit a couple of the possible homes for Mil, as well as visiting Mil herself. OH wasn't too well yesterday, some sort of cold/flu virus by the looks of it, so I have my fingers crossed that her feels better today, as we really need to get these vists and the search for somewhere for Mil off the ground properly.
I'll leave you with Otter Mum and one of the babies - this little one had headed into one of the pools by itself - but as you can see, Mum simply grabbed it by the scruff, hauled it out, and brought it back (dripping) to the rest of the gang - everybody say 'AWWWWWWWW'
Hope you all have a good day - and Amy and Grace, haven't seen you around for a couple of days - hope everything is going OK for you both? xxxx