Our New Year

Thanks for all your good wishes for Mother-in-law. We weren't sure what we'd find as the phone messages had made it all sound rather desperate but when we arrived at the hospital Friday evening to see her she looked and sounded better than she's been for ages ...

Saturday lunchtime at about 1.30 she phoned to say she could come home so Husband and Father-in-law went to fetch her. What she didn't mention was that she hadn't been officially signed out by the doctor and so they had to wait ... and wait. They finally got home at 7.30 pm - after spending the afternoon, bemasked, in a ward full of people with swine flu.

Mother-in-law has been in and out of hospital a lot recently as she needs oxygen but won't use it constantly, as the doctor has told her to, so gets breathless and in a state - and ends up in an ambulance.

So I spent New Year's eve and day doing what I do best: cooking. We've left them with a large piece of ham I baked but I'm not confident that they'll remember it's there. Lack of oxygen is affecting M-i-l's memory quite dramatically, and Father-in-law has had a couple of strokes so he can be forgetful too, although he's fine when he's allowed to get on with things quietly without being hassled. Unfortunately M-i-l tends to nag him a lot. The joys of getting old.

(To be fair, I've had to stop regularly and work out what day it is; these Christmas holidays have been very confusing.)