Seven-spice veg stirfry with ginger rice

Today was a bad day. Knowing she had something to do today (produce a urine sample, so nothing particularly complicated) sent mum into her usual anxiety spiral. She woke me just before 7am to ask if it was time to do the sample yet, then again 45 minutes later to tell me she’d done it and ask me where she should put it.

By the time I was planning on going out to take the sample to the GP surgery, mum had retreated to her bed, repeatedly sobbing “what did I do to deserve this?” until I lost my patience and responded “probably the same thing I did to deserve being physically disabled”. I promptly apologised, but I don’t think she heard or grasped what I said enough to be offended.

My planned trip to drop off the sample and then go to a café for lunch was abandoned in favour of a hurried trip to the GP surgery, down the footpath to the corner shop to get mum some more painkillers, then back on the bus home. I was out maybe 30 minutes in total, during which mum called me three times: a vast improvement on yesterday’s 12 times in 60 minutes, but still not enough for me to feel remotely alone. (During the second of the three times mum came to check on me in the four minutes or so I was outside waiting for the bus, she told me to “have fun!”, not a sentiment commonly associated with delivering a urine sample.)

Then I spent about 40 minutes on the phone to a credit card company whose representatives were creditably sympathetic to my situation, and then I was once again out of day to do any of the other things on my to do list. Tomorrow, maybe?

I have failed at meal planning this week, so mum’s daily question of “what’s for dinner?” again got a response of “umm…” With help from the freezer and my store of Simply Cook boxes, I produced a veg stirfry with Japanese seven spice and peanuts, with some rice cooked in a savoury, gingery broth. I was surprised when mum got up to get a spoon to scrape the last of the meal from her bowl, and finally put it down with a satisfied “very nice”. Important note to self: cook more vegetarian (or vegan¹, in this case) food, as that’s what mum generally prefers.

By this evening, with the prospect of nothing happening tomorrow, mum was once again almost her old. She watched a funny programme on television and followed lt enough to laugh at some of the jokes, and (for the first time) expressed sympathy for my new-found disability: “it must be really hard for you”.

Now it’s time for hot Ribena, cold chocolate, and warm kindle (it’s getting old and battered, so heats up when in use, which I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to do), then hopefully some undisturbed sleep. We’ll see.

1. Maybe not completely, as I don’t know what was in the stock base, but functionally vegan, anyway. ↩︎