Sharp pointiness
Cheese omelette with new potato, spring greens and bacon warm salad (recipe!)
When I left you yesterday, it was with my intention to contact the GP about mum’s anxiety. Later in the evening, I mentioned it to mum – in passing, because we had already agreed I was going to do it – and it turned into an argument.
Mum does not have anxiety, she is completely fine. She was “just messing around” when waking me in the early hours to tell me she doesn’t want to see her friends. I was not to call the doctor: she is completely fine.
In the end, just to make it stop, I told her we would see how today went.
This morning started off well, with mum getting herself up, washed, and dressed, and asking me if I wanted coffee. But it quickly devolved back into pacing, looping on her various ailments, and telling me how on edge she felt, at which point I told her that this was what I was talking about last night, and she doesn’t need to feel like this.
I have had severe anxiety in the past, and I know all too well that it’s not something you can break out of through logic or willpower. Maybe it was that that got through to her, but she agreed that I could contact the doctor.
After waiting all day, the lead GP just called me back a few minutes ago. He told me that treating anxiety in patients with Alzheimer’s is best done by a specialist, and he had contacted the Memory Service after reading the email I sent a couple of weeks ago.
The one I was sniffily told not to expect a response to.
I despair sometimes, I really do.
So now we wait some more, for the Memory Service to respond to the GP’s letter. In the meantime, I will just have to do my best to manage mum’s anxiety and not lose my patience with her endless clingness, and reassurance-seeking, and the pain that migrates around her body depending on what she’s thinking of at that particular moment.
For dinner tonight I made a dish that required the slicing of raw new potatoes, largely to give me a reason to use one of my new knives. I cannot tell you how nice it is to use a properly sharp knife after fighting with mum’s more or less blunt ones for so long.
The only problem was that I used the point of the knife to test the done-ness of the potatoes in their pan of boiling water. The knife slid through easily, so I assumed the potatoes were properly cooked, but it’s a sharp knife and, as I discovered when mum took her first bite, the potatoes in fact weren’t properly cooked. Oops. 😬
Despite that slight, unintended crunch factor, the warm salad was nice enough that I’ll share the recipe, such as it is:
Slice new potatoes (two to three per person) and cook until just tender. (Test with the point of a knife that you know better than I know mine. 😉)
Add a generous handful of chopped spring greens and cook for another thirty seconds or so, until the greens are well wilted, then drain the potatoes and greens.
In the same pan, fry rashers of bacon, chopped into small pieces, until golden and crisp.
Meanwhile, in a bowl or jug, mix one heaped tsp of wholegrain mustard, one tsp of honey, one tbsp of white wine vinegar, and three tbsp of extra virgin olive oil until combined.
When the bacon is ready, add the potatoes, greens, and the honey-mustard dressing, and mix together gently.
Serve warm or at room temperature for the best flavour.
I served this with a simple cheese omelette. Mum looked at it and said “I don’t know if I’ll like this, but I’ll try”. Nothing brings greater joy to my heart than mum looking at a plate of things she has previously enjoyed and saying she’s not sure if she likes them. /s
Anyway, overly-firm potatoes aside, she ate it without further complaint, which is about the best I can hope for these days.
Tomorrow I am going into the next town to collect mum’s prescribed treatment for her sore mouth. I have invited mum to come with me, and we can go for lunch afterwards. She’s already worrying about whether she’ll be well enough to go, and will they be nice to her, and it will be OK, won’t it?
I really hope the Memory Service comes back to me and mum soon, before one or both of us loses it entirely.
Is it pineapple sponge today? 