Mediterranean veg pasta bake

So, as friends on Facebook will know, my wish for no early morning wake-up wasn’t granted: by 8am, I was up and mum had gone back to bed, where she stayed for most of the morning. Luckily her antidepressants – the same type I’m taking, oddly enough – arrived today and I’m going to give her her first one this evening. She has, most unusually, been talking a bit about how she feels, and has agreed that she is both anxious and depressed: this is a big thing for her, so I really hope the tablets work, and quickly.

They won’t, sadly, work quickly enough to help either of us through tomorrow, when I have to go on the long and dangerous trek down to the village pharmacy to collect some newly prescribed meds. Mum doesn’t want to come with me, but tearfully pleaded “please don’t leave me for long, will you?”, so I don’t dare take too long to enjoy my temporary respite from caring.

Today I did a spot of very ad hoc but effective occupational therapy by sweeping and washing the kitchen floor. The OT wasn’t for me but for mum: I knew she couldn’t resist coming to supervise and redo the bits I hadn’t done to her satisfaction, and it worked. 🤭

(I will add here that she did say thank you, so she’s not as ungrateful as I may make her sound.)

She also, much to my surprise, agreed to me hiring a cleaner, as long as I pay for it. I actually intend to sort out her claim for Assistance Allowance and pay the cleaner out of that, but she doesn’t need to know the details, nor would she care.

Dinner was that perennial favourite, Mediterranean vegetable pasta. It vanished quickly, so there couldn’t have been too much wrong with it.

Now, with rain clouds closing in, another day draws to a close. I hope tomorrow won’t start too early, or at least won’t start with too much misery, but I’m not confident on either point. If I thought being a carer to a person with dementia was tough, doing it for a person with dementia and mental health problems is even worse. Oh well: just keep swimming, as my late sister (and before that, an animated fish) liked to say.