A nightmare unfolds...

Day 28

Things finally reached breaking point this morning when I received a call from my Dad to say that my Mum was ill and in bed and he was alone downstairs. I went rushing over to the house, imagining all sorts, to find my Mum wielding a hoover in the hallway...

Before I left I'd taken calls from several people about the situation my parents are in and I'm going to try and arrange a care package for my Mum when my Dad goes into respite care. They have both agreed he needs to have a break and my Mum needs a rest from caring for him. However, I am worried about her coping on her own so I had several talks with Adult Social Services to arrange carers to come in every day. My Dad will also have to have something in place when the carers stop coming in a few weeks' time as well.

While I was in the house I said to Mum to go and have a shower and I made my Dad a cup of coffee. I then did some tidying up and cleaning and received (and made) lots more phone calls. I felt desperately sad that we are in this position, especially as, looking around the house, it's full of memories of happier times. I never thought for one moment that we would be in this situation because my parents always looked and acted younger than their real ages, and now they seem to have aged over the last few months.

I left at midday when the lunchtime carer visited, and went home to have a shower and change my clothes. At 1pm, when Sophie was on her lunch break, we popped over to the post office at Brixworth to send some parcels (we are putting stuff on ebay again) and we went to our own surgery to get our prescriptions. I am so fed up of all the medical matters lately! I would be very happy if we never had to go to another surgery ever again!

Back home Keith made me a sandwich and I took a call from Adult Social Services about Mum's care package. I was on the phone for ages! It was lovely to finally relax and sit and eat my lunch in the conservatory. Outside the weather was glorious again and I realised that the children would have been back at school today - it's the first day of the summer term.

When Sophie finished work at 5pm we both went for a walk up to the village and through the sheep field. No encounters with sheep this time but they did all eye us curiously!

When we were sitting relaxing at about 6.30pm the phone rang and it was my mum sounding very confused and ill. She said her head felt funny and that she hadn't mentioned to me that she'd banged her head the other day.

Sophie and I went rushing over to the house, leaving Keith to sort out our dinner. We found Mum looking very ill and extremely low, with no sign of her evening meal being prepared. We heated Dad's food and made sure he had his dinner before trying to get my Mum to eat something. I was extremely worried about her as she wouldn't eat. We settled her on the sofa and she said she felt a bit better so we told Dad to keep an eye on her and if she wasn't better when the 9pm carer came to put Dad to bed, to let us know.

On the way home Sophie was very upset about the whole situation and I hated seeing her like that - I try to shield my daughter from these kinds of problems, but today I just wasn't able to.

Back home I didn't feel like eating but we did sit down to a meal and again, after dinner, the phone rang at 9pm. The carer had been on the phone to her supervisor who was worried about my Mum so we all went over again and this time I called for an ambulance.

Keith went home and the paramedic who arrived was fantastic. She took her blood pressure which was a bit low and her temperature was a bit high. After lots of tests and a talk with an out-of -hours doctor, she decided to admit her to Northampton hospital, which we felt would be better for her. The ambulance arrived (the paramedic had been in a car) and at just before midnight, my Mum was taken to hospital.

This meant that Sophie and I had to stay to look after my Dad who was asleep. We tried to get emergency care sorted all through the night - dialling NHS 111 and Adult Social Services but to be honest, we were given the run around. The thought of having to deal with my Dad all day tomorrow and then even tomorrow night filled us both with absolute despair. It was a horrible night and we only managed about an hour of sleep each. I'm sorry, in this post I cannot find anything positive to end on.