Cheese omelette, roasted Mediterranean veg, chips

So, you’ll remember that we had all those problems with our freezer, and we recently got a nice, shiny new one? Well, that’s also now stopped working.

This afternoon I spent half an hour on a conference call to the seller and manufacturer confirming that it’s definitely not working (the frozen stuff wasn’t frozen, which was a pretty major clue), and arranging for the broken one to be taken away and a new one to be delivered in its place.

They only deliver to the Isle of Wight on Mondays and Fridays, and we’re out on Friday, so until Monday we’ve got an appliance sitting, unusable, in the kitchen. I may start keeping a tally of how often one of us trips over the unplugged plug: we’re up to three so far.

That aside, I had a long chat with someone from the Memory Service, about mum’s Alzheimer’s and the meds she takes for it. That person has also never heard of someone whose Alzheimer’s presents like mum’s, with memory loss affecting her entire life and not just short-term events. We just like to be special snowflakes in this family, I suppose. 🤷‍♂️

Then we had a visit from someone from Carers IW, who gave me links to various helpful organisations I had never heard of – one that arranges Personal Assistants and does all the associated paperwork, for example – and did me a referral to the Dementia Pathway Navigation Team, who offer assistance with the various bits of paperwork that come with a dementia diagnosis.

Then I cooked some croissants that had defrosted, and we had them for lunch with cheese and grapes. Then… oh, I called the pharmacy about some missing meds (I swear I spend more time chasing medication than doing anything else), and arranged for mum (and me) to go to the Eye Clinic on Friday for them to have a look at mum’s eye.

I will have to cancel my therapy appointment for the second week in a row in order to take mum to her appointment. The joys of being a carer. 🫤

At some point around this time, mum came in to my bedroom with an “it’s not working” – ‘it’ being her glasses, which had shed a lens. I managed to persuade mum to wear her spare pair for now, and tomorrow I will phone our local optician and ask if they can / will fix it.

Then we moved everything from the freezer room temperature box in the kitchen to the working freezer in the kitchen. Then I cooked the chips and Mediterranean veg that were both too far gone to keep, chatted on the phone to my BIL (get well soon, please!), and made a cheese omelette. Thankfully, this was a meal mum ate without fuss.

Now it’s sweet stuff – tiramisu for mum, raspberry and passionfruit cheesecake for me – tv, and please let it be bedtime soon.

It feels like it’s been a massively long day today: every time I start to get my head above water another wave comes along and slaps me in the face. I would be very grateful if I could get through one day without something else breaking.

Please?!