Garlic and herb chicken, Mediterranean veg and potatoes; apple strudel and honey yoghurt

God, but today has been a long and difficult day.

Just as I was easing into wakefulness, my phone rang. I reached for it, guessing (correctly, as it turned out) that it would be the doctor who was meant to call but didn’t. Sadly, my fumbling fingers refused to cooperate, and the phone ended up on the floor under the bed.

By the time the phone was back in my hand, the doctor had rung off, leaving an unintelligible message. (To cut out a dull section of narrative, it apparently said “I’ll try again later”.)

Then mum woke up, and turned out to have a bad case of diarrhoea that reduced her to childlike sobbing of “I don’t like it, I don’t like it”. I got her cleaned up, got the bathroom cleaned up, and got her soiled pyjamas in the washing machine.

I made mum a mug of fruit tea with sugar, to try and get some liquid and calories into her, made myself a mug of coffee (because I needed the caffeine), got mum settled on the sofa, and went to sit on my bed for five minutes before the next crisis. Suki was kind enough to venture into my room to purr at me for a few minutes, until mum had to run to the bathroom again and scared her off.

Mum became increasingly distraught and inconsolable, until finally – thankfully – things started settling down late in the morning. The doctor still hadn’t called, but I only had twenty minutes until the community bus office closed for the Easter break and I needed to try to arrange transport to a blood test for mum on Tuesday morning.

So I called them, and of course the doctor called the moment I was otherwise engaged. This time the message he left was clear: you’ll have to try again tomorrow.

That clearly wasn’t going to work, so I called the GP surgery and begged for one more try. They agreed, but this time I had to “try really, really hard to answer the phone”. As if lack of effort was what had so far stopped me answering the phone. 🙄

The day went on, and on. Mum asked what she could do to make her headache go away, and I had to say I didn’t know. I decided I had had enough of waiting and called the GP surgery, and asked to put through to the Patient Communication Manager, who handles complaints.

Fortunately part of her role involves attending the type of meeting that yesterday discussed mum’s care, so she knew the outline of the situation and that a management plan had been laid out. She expressed surprise that no-one had yet called to discuss it with me, and left to find a clinician who was available to talk to me.

Fifteen minutes later – and this is where I can feel my earlier righteous fury rising again – a doctor called and said “I was told to phone. What can I do for you?” Through gritted teeth I explained that I just needed someone to take me through the plan from yesterday’s meeting… “I wasn’t at that meeting,” he interrupted, “so I don’t know”.

My very rarely used ‘I have had enough of this sh*t’ voice emerged, and I told him I needed an answer this afternoon, so he could go back and tell the manager he couldn’t help and she needed to find someone who could. “You’ve got 15 minutes,” I told him.

I had to admit to myself that I had no idea what I would do if they didn’t call back within 15 minutes, but thankfully they didn’t call my bluff and I got a call from one of the ANPs who managed to sound as if she actually cared.

She talked me through the plan, explaining what new tablets were coming, how and when to introduce them (not as the GP had stated in his notes, which was potentially dangerous to mum’s health by reducing mum’s pulse rate and blood pressure), and how to taper off mum’s codeine tablets so she didn’t continue to get withdrawal symptoms alongside her other problems. She also made herself a note to call me on Tuesday to see how mum’s getting on.

Thank you, ANP, for actually helping. Your name will go in my complaint as ‘this is what you’re meant to do’.

Thankfully, we had a grocery delivery today which included a number of easy dinner options. It also included a box of two apple strudels which, tragically (not) wouldn’t fit in the freezer so I had to cook them tonight. Shame.

Tonight will (hopefully – please universe) be quiet, with a snuggly Suki sitting beside me, occasionally pawing at my leg to let me know she wants some fuss, which is the only ‘needs attention’ I can cope with tonight.