Homemade cheese and tomato pizza

Late yesterday evening I belatedly realised that mum’s usual stream of complaints wasn’t as generalised as usual but was instead focussed on what sounded like symptoms of a UTI. This morning I spoke to an ANP, who confirmed my suspicions, and prescribed some antibiotics.

As mum was feeling so miserable, I called the pharmacy and asked if it would be OK for me to come and collect mum’s tablets rather than waiting for them to be delivered. They confirmed this was fine, so I called my regular taxi driver and headed down there.

I arrived no more than 30 minutes after I called, asked for the tablets, and was told “the pharmacist has gone to the dentist, and we can’t dispense anything until he gets back”. Why they didn’t tell me this when I called to say I was heading down was a question they couldn’t answer, although they did offer a genuine apology.

So I had an unscheduled hour or so to myself in town.

I couldn’t walk far, of course, but I went into the neighbouring coffee shop (PO41) and treated myself to an oat milk (not almond, as I said on Facebook) flat white. Then I headed round the corner to Graces Bakery and bought myself a chicken mayo sandwich and an Isle of Wight doughnut for lunch, and took the opportunity to thank the staff in person for keeping me going during last year’s hospital stay.

I spotted a lapwing (a wild bird often seen near water at this time of year, but not one I’ve had a chance to see while stuck at home), petted a sweet young orange and white cat, and got kisses from an equally sweet black and white dog. I then saw some raindrops and retreated into a doorway for shelter while I waited for my taxi driver to come back from the county town, where he had gone to get some petrol.

He then phoned to say that he couldn’t get back and had asked another of the area’s many one-person taxi companies to come and get me instead. He was a nice bloke, and gave me his card so I’ve got another taxi to add to my “in case of transport emergency” file.

Then I came home, gave mum her tablets – much to her vocal displeasure, as she’s firmly of the opinion that she takes too many tablets already – and settled in to listen to mum complaining about how unwell she feels. With the UTI making her mental state even worse than normal, you would not believe how many times today I have said “I know you don’t feel well, it’s because you’ve got an infection, you have to give the antibiotics a chance to work”.

Before going out, my patience had snapped after listening to the usual “my head hurts”, “why does my head hurt?”, “did I tell you I’ve got a headache?” looping over and over and over every couple of minutes, and I told mum it was like living with a stuck record. She apologised and stopped complaining for at least, oh, two minutes. 🙄

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This evening I made a homemade pizza. Mum genuinely did her best to eat it but managed only one small slice and a few lettuce leaves before her fragile appetite petered out. She asked if she could have ice cream and I agreed, figuring this is one of those times when it’s better to get some calories into her, even if they’re in frozen, caffeinated form.

Thus came the worst part of the day – no, of the whole week.

We’re nearly out of coffee ice cream. 😱

And on that terrifying note I will leave you, as I have to go and do an urgent grocery order.