I wanted to write a blog post for xmas but things have been so intense and I felt so drained, I couldn’t do it till now. Xmas day started with a call to the emergency plumbers – the loo was blocked. This does happens sometimes and it often sorts itself out – but I didn’t dare risk it this time, what with it being xmas and the family coming on 26th. Anyway a chirpy chappy turned up, got out his eel and cleared the blockage.

By then it was time to cook lunch. I don’t eat meat, but I bravely attempted to cook mum a chicken breast. I was worried the oven would blow up while I was roasting chicken, vegetables etc but all went ok, and the two of us sat there in our paper hats and enjoyed our Christmas dinner! But we were running late. After clearing up, I had precisely 25 minutes of peace until it was time to watch the Strictly Xmas special. This ushered in 6 hours of tv. Half way through, I spent 15mins in the kitchen getting tea and got repeatedly shouted at: ‘Where are you? It’s Midwives.’
Boxing day was ok. The family visit was fine, and I managed to feed 7 people with a little help from the others. But when they left, I was again required to watch hours of tv. If I left the room it was ‘Where are you? It’s Victoria Wood.’ But I did get a quiet read at bedtime.

Saturday. Oh my god. Mum has a problem with constipation. She takes medication and then, instead of waiting for it to act, she gets in a panic and takes more. She does this, even though she knows what will happen – and happen it did. The only consolation was that she had managed to get into the bathroom. Otherwise there was shit everywhere. The worst thing wasn’t the horrible revolting nature of cleaning it all up but the risk of contamination. After this unpleasant experience, I had to have a stiff drink. Lunch was a little late; afterwards I put on a load of yucky washing and watched Kungfu Panda 2. Then, just as we were going to bed, there was a major bleeding incident. By the time that was sorted out and cleaned up it was after midnight. I didn’t even try to sleep till after 1. Another stiff drink and – on Sunday – another load of yucky washing!!! But I did get an hour of peace that afternoon.

I don’t mind all the hard work, but I do need some kind of space to recover from it. It’s not just that helping mum is physically exhausting, it’s also psychologically draining. I lose my equilibrium and have to ‘reboot’ my energy (viz: Kung Fu panda 2!). And this takes up so much of the precious time I have to do things for myself.

And, by the way, as I was drafting this last night, mum had another bleed, not quite so bad, tho I still didn’t get to bed till 1am. I really hope we can get through the new year without any more incidents!!!