Creamy smoked haddock and prawn pasta

Mum woke me up early this morning (a phrase I use so often my phone now auto-completes it for me), panicking that “someone’s taking me away – where am I going? Who’s coming for me?”

I managed to calm her down enough to understand that someone medical was coming to see her, but she wasn’t going anywhere. (I turned out to be wrong about that, but more on that anon.) Mum went back to bed, while I sat on the edge of my bed as I now know from experience that mum won’t just go back to sleep.

Sure enough, five minutes later mum called out that she had a headache, so I went to get her some painkillers. Mum then went back to bed, but a few minutes later called out to say she had a headache.

“I know, you’ve just taken some painkillers.”

A few minutes later, mum called out to say she had a headache.

[Count to ten, deep breath.] “I know, you’ve just taken some painkillers.”

A few minutes later, mum called out to say she had a headache.

[Count to ten, deep breath.] “I know, you’ve just taken some painkillers.”

After a couple more repetitions, mum did go back to sleep, so I did too. When I woke up a couple of hours later, mum’s first words to me were “my head hurts”.

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By lunchtime, mum still had a headache, the paramedic hadn’t arrived, and I had counted to ten so many times I was in danger of wearing the numbers out.

I called the GP surgery to check that I had the right day for the paramedic’s visit, and was told that I did, and not to forget that mum also had an appointment at the practice in the afternoon. I thought that was tomorrow, so – oops. Luckily I had booked the taxi for the right day, so only had to tolerate a few hours of mum walking from room to room, changing her clothes multiple times (“the doctor won’t care which jeans you’re wearing, mum”), complaining that she hadn’t known she would have to go out, more pacing, more complaining, more counting to ten under my breath.

The doctor (actually an ANP, but I wasn’t going to try and explain that to mum) listened to everything I said, did a couple of tests, and eventually prescribed mum antibiotics (because she thinks mum still has an infection), beta blockers (for the headaches, but if they calm mum’s anxiety that’s a definite bonus), anti-fungal cream (for soreness of an intimate nature), and tablets for mum’s (presumed) IBS.

The pharmacist very kindly delivered the whole lot on his way home, which of course prompted more complaints from mum about the number of tablets she has to take. I also wasn’t happy to find that both the antibiotics and the anti-fungal cream are ones that mum has tried before and haven’t worked.

(On a related note, mum has just called to me from the bathroom to say that she’s put the cream on and it’s not doing anything. I explained that it’s to treat an infection and won’t work immediately: I don’t know what she was expecting it to do!)

I’m really hoping something works this time and we don’t just end up going in more circles, but I will confess that I’m not expecting much.

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For dinner I cooked a Simply Cook recipe for salmon pasta, but replaced the salmon (which neither mum nor I like) with smoked haddock and prawns, and the spinach with green beans. Mum scraped her bowl clean before complaining it was spicy, so I don’t know whether she liked it or not. I did, and will eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

So – that’s that. Tomorrow is now a day off, and I’m hoping the new meds will help so it’s a less complain-y one. We’ll see.