Conchiglie con funghi

I’m glad I searched for things to be grateful for yesterday, as today has been difficult.

Mum is having real problems with the lichen sclerosus: she woke up (and woke me up) with pain, to the extent that she wanted me to arrange for an ambulance to take her to hospital. Instead I called the GP practice, and spoke to an ANP who assured me I’m doing all the right things and it’s just that it’s a condition that takes some time to heal.

What I’m doing doesn’t seem to be helping mum, though, and she was getting increasingly distressed as I repeatedly explained why she’s in pain and what’s being done to help. She can’t seem to keep it in her head that people are trying to help: she seems to think either no-one has noticed she’s unwell, or that they don’t care. I know there’s no logic or hurtful intent there, but it still hurts me that she believes I’m either stupid or neglectful of her health when I’m pushing so hard to help her feel better.

This afternoon I decided to go and find a support group online, to see if people with the condition could advise me on what more I can do. I’m glad to say I found one, and they’ve been immensely helpful already. I am a little limited by what mum will actually do, though: several things I have suggested have been met with a flat “no” (e.g sitting on a cushion, so it’s not like I’m suggesting she try jogging to Italy or something).

Oh well: I can but try.

For dinner I made a Simply Cook recipe for ‘wild mushroom pasta’, although there’s not much wild about it except the wild way that a mountain of raw mushrooms cooks down to a neat two portions. It was nice, but so salty I think I’ll be downing water all through the night.

Tomorrow the respite sitter is coming, and I’ll have to explain what’s happening to mum so she knows that, despite what mum implies, there isn’t some horrible case of neglect going on. I intend to spend my free couple of hours reading some of the materials I ordered from Alzheimer’s UK, although atm I’m more tempted to spend it having a sneaky nap. 😴