Fuming!

My Mum had a hospital appointment at 11am this morning and I arranged a meeting with them in the care home garden beforehand, so they could sign some important documents for the sale of the house. I had to make a visit to their house first, though, to find Mum's hospital letter as I didn't know where we had to go!

The meeting was OK, but I was dismayed to see my Mum also in a wheelchair. I was beginning to wish that I'd brought Keith with me to help. We sat in the garden and I asked them to sign several forms, which they did without question. The forms were for fixtures and fittings and questions about boundaries and any neighbourly disputes. Thankfully, they were quite straightforward and Keith and I will try and concentrate on them later this week when I have a free afternoon.

I managed (eventually) to get Mum into my car and the wheelchair folded up. What a good job I have a spacious boot! I had been debating about whether to take Sophie's car and I'm so glad I didn't!

We drove to the hospital and I parked in the horrible multi-storey. Getting Mum to the main entrance was hard as although the kerbs had been dropped, it was still difficult pushing the wheelchair! One very lovely man helped me find the wheelchair accessible path but when we arrived at the main entrance I had a feeling we were in the wrong place...

The woman on the desk directed me back out of the building and across the car park to a separate building opposite. Once there we had our temperatures taken (both 35c) and I had to fill out a short questionnaire. We were then told to go to the ultrasound reception.

When I gave my Mum's name at the desk the receptionist said that we didn't have a face-to-face appointment and that we were supposed to have a telephone one instead... a letter should have been sent out... I was absolutely fuming and I nearly burst into tears. Not only had I disrupted my work rota to be here today but it meant that my Mum has to go back into self-isolation for two weeks for nothing. I was livid. The receptionist said that we were the fourth appointment that had turned up as the others hadn't received a letter either.

Another woman came to help but as the consultant wasn't in there was nothing they could do. The receptionist said she was going to make a staff complaint about how we had been treated because it wasn't acceptable.

I took my poor Mum back to the care home straight away when I had been planning on taking her for a coffee at Tesco's. I was hoping upon hope that as we hadn't actually been seen by anyone we could try and get away with not putting her and my Dad into self-isolation, but a phone call later in the morning confirmed that they would be as they just couldn't risk it. I felt deeply upset and wished now I'd taken my Mum for a coffee as it wouldn't have mattered.

Sophie and I went for a walk after she'd finished work as I had been feeling very stressed out all day and very upset about my poor parents who now have to face another two weeks in self-isolation. They have been in the care home now for six weeks and they've spent most of that time cooped up in two rooms, unable to take part in the daily activities that the other residents are enjoying. I did ask whether they could give my Mum a test in a few days to see if that could shorten the self-isolation and that's my only hope.

We had a lovely walk and came home to relax and enjoy a drink in the conservatory. Dinner tonight was the other two pies we'd bought in Beckworth a few weeks ago. Sadly we didn't like them any more than we did when we first ate them!