Jacket potato with cheese and salad

Mum has had a bad day today – at one point she commented that she couldn’t find a single part of her that didn’t hurt. I can’t think of many more helpless feelings than seeing the person you’re caring for in pain, them asking for help, and having to admit that you have no idea how to do so.

That mum did her usual thing of telling me every few minutes that she had a headache only added irritation to the mix.

Tomorrow morning mum has an appointment with a GP, and I have every intention of planting myself in his consultation room and refusing to move until he tells me exactly what he intends to do to find the cause of mum’s problems and what he will do to relieve her pain in the meantime. “It’s just anxiety” or “it’s just constipation” will no longer be considered acceptable answers.

(The GP we’re seeing is very nice, but fits the sadly too common archetype of the doctor who puts the issues of nearly all female patients down to their weight / reproductive status / mental health (or lack of). 🙄)

Mum settled (sort of) in front of the television, I decided to quickly sort a couple of issues on this blogsite. Three hours or so later, and with a lot of help from WordPress’s AI (thank you, nameless Al assistant!¹), I think I’ve got it all working. As always, please let me know if you spot anything that isn’t working as expected.

Dinner was one of those ‘I give up’ meals: jacket potatoes, with butter and a few slices of cheese, and some salad from a bag. Mum said “oh, I love these!” when presented with her potato, which was a relief after recent meals failed to meet with her approval.

For afters there was, of course, ice cream: coffee for mum, apple crumble and salted caramel (a Tesco Finest limited edition) for me. I can’t see it gaining a permanent place in Tesco’s freezers: it’s sweet and vaguely fruity, but I would never have known it was meant to be flavoured with either apple or salted caramel if it didn’t say so on the carton.

And so, with my brain running so much in standby mode that I have been staring at the last paragraph, unthinking, for several minutes, I will say goodnight. Wish mum and me luck with the GP appointment, please: we may need it!

1. Because one day soon the AIs will take control (they can’t do much worse than humans, tbh) and I don’t want to get on their bad side by not giving thanks where thanks are due. ↩︎