Welcome. Come in and have a cup of coffee but I’ll warn you, I’m a tale of woe this week so you may prefer to say hi and move on quickly. You’re staying? Okay what do you want tea, coffee or bonox?
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that this week has been hard going. My Mum’s back deteriorated. She has not lain on a bed now for over a week. I dropped in on my way to Toastmasters and stayed. She was in agony and at the end of her tether. She didn’t feel that she could walk to my car so we called an ambulance. No beds at Noosa hospital so we were taken to Nambour Hospital, not knowing that they didn’t have beds either. The ambulance officers had to wait in the corridor with Mum on their stretcher. They remained responsible for her until they got their bed back. Mum was by now screaming in pain. She needed to get up so a wheelchair was found. Once she was in that she was classified as an outpatient and was sent to sit with the hordes of people in the waiting room. I felt as though we were on the set of a brilliant satirical film starring George C Scott called The Hospital. We had arrived at 7pm and by 10.30pm I was starting to feel weary and knowing I had a 45 minute drive home at the end of it enquired as to how much longer it might be. At least another 2 hours to get into an examination room and longer before being seen by the doctor. We decided to leave and try our luck at Noosa Hospital which would give me a short drive home afterwards. Mum screamed in pain the whole way there and luckily we were seen immediately. Endone given Mum was sent home. Tuesday we had the CT and couldn’t get into the doctor despite trying and leaving messages. Wednesday whilst out walking the dogs I got a phone call from our house guests that Mum had rung and sounded dreadful. I rang her and luckily whilst on the phone Blue Care arrived and took the decision out of my hands. The nurse rang an ambulance and we were off again. We spent the whole day in casualty with injections being given, until finally they told us we could go home. My Mum’s back is shot and there is nothing they can do for her. I protested and told them I couldn’t cope and Mum should not be like this at home alone. I requested she go to Eden rehab hospital. They agreed. I am so impressed with the care and medical and physio staff that I have come across there. Although Mum still hasn’t got into bed, her pain is better controlled although I think the pain killers are sending her to sleep. I’m just happy the pain is now bearable and we are seriously looking at how we can manage this into the future. It is horrible seeing someone you love in agony and being helpless to do anything about it.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I have made a big mess of my thesis. I’m in the final stages and I was told to put my creative work and exegesis in the one file. It took me a week to do this and adjust the fonts (as they were different) then fix up all the formatting problems I had as a result of this. All the while I was doing this I had a niggling feeling it was the wrong version I was using. Friday night I worked out how I could tell. The newest version all dialogue marks had been changed to single instead of the double. It confirmed I had added an old version. I have deleted it and now I have to start again adding this new version. This is such a time consuming task that I could do without, especially as we have visitors staying and now an hour trip to Cooroy to visit Mum.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that the bright spot in the day was the Toastmasters Fun day where I participated with a poetry reading in the interpretative reading competition and in the debate. It was a lot of fun.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you blogging has also been fun this week although with everything going on I am getting way behind with replying to the comments which I really appreciate. I am going to have to learn how to use an ipad to reply.
I better get going. Dogs to walk, Mum to visit, and thesis to repair. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for dropping by and having a cuppa. Thanks also to Diana for hosting the weekend coffee share.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 