Nurse Penny!

My poor Mother had an extremely difficult time with Father last night – he fell out of bed and she had to call Swift Response out and then an ambulance out later. She phoned me at 2.45am and at 7am. She had no sleep whatsoever. When I arrived at my parent's house this morning, my Mother sat exhausted in her chair. She was in a real state and was understandably bad-tempered. I re-made her hot water bottle and sent her up to bed – it took alot of persuading, but she looked awful and I dug my heels in. She must have been tired, as she gave in eventually. Whilst she dozed, I was doing domestic chores and looking after Father all morning.

Lucy arrived by bus at 12.30pm which was nice of her. I put a wash load of clothes outside and had to put on extra pegs to keep the clothes on the line, with the 50mph winds battering Norfolk today! Mother woke up at about 1.30pm. Went to the posh fish 'n' chip shop at the Thornham Farm Shop complex, which has just gone up from £6.50 to £7.00 for a portion of fish 'n' chips! The restaurant and take-away service was packed out with Easter holidaymakers, so had to wait a while. After I helped Father with his lunch, I hovered the house, washed up etc and then had a catnap myself!

Father was quite reasonable during the day, but he started to get very confused and unreasonable early evening. You could see him building up to being difficult later on this evening – I hope very much for Mother's sake, that I'm wrong. Typical dementia symptoms, sleeping during day and playing up at night. I don't think it will be too many more days now before Mother gives in and has no choice about putting him into a care home. There are few people that would have coped as she has done and for this amount of time at any age! Lucy and I left at 8.30pm. It was lashing down with rain and there was alot of water on the roads driving back to King's Lynn. I hope to get out birding again tomorrow.