Give Them The Money. Part Two.

The following day, it was New Year’s Day, I did wonder if the shops would be open, as I needed to go shopping for Mum and myself, and for the following week, up until Thursday. We had had a lovely breakfast and Mum was watching Sky News. I said to Mum, “I’m going to the shop, I will be about an hour, stay where you are, OK?” Mum replied, “OK.”

I drove to the shop that was about five minutes away and bought items that Mum needed for the week ahead, I also saw frozen fish n chips with mushy peas. I know we had eaten it two days before, but its my favourite and I knew Mum would eat it, like she did on Friday. I had tried to phone the shop, to see if they would be open, today on New Year’s Day, but the phone just kept on ringing. I decided to take a chance and just turn up. Was pleased to see that it was open and quite busy. It is a shame for the shop workers who have SO little holidays. I was grateful that they were open, it made my life much easier with Mum, than dragging her out into the cold.

I was pleased with everything I had bought and I had bought a little bit of shopping for my husband and kids too. Tomorrow was Bank Holiday Monday, it would be my last day with Mum, before I went back to work, on Tuesday morning.

I decided before we had our late lunch early dinner, that Mum would again do thirty minutes of over eighty’s exercise, while seated on a chair. I tried to find the personal trainers that Mum had beautifully followed the day before, but was unable to find them. At first, some of the ones, they were way too advance for Mum, they were not suitable even though they were supposed to be for the over eighty’s and seated. I had to stop the videos several times and try and find another one.

I then found one that I was happy with, and these wanted Mum to hold a tin of food in each hand, there wasn’t anything like that yesterday, but, the age was right and it was seated, so I couldn’t see any harm. My plan was again to let Mum do the workout for thirty minutes.

At first Mum did great, just like the day before, she followed the trainers, then suddenly Mum seemed to just stop. With some encouragement I said, to Mum, “Come on Mum, march with your feet,” Mum’s feet didn’t move, I looked at her face, and she was still looking at the laptop from the table in front of her, but she wasn’t following on to the next exercise. For ten minutes Mum didn’t do any more. I decided she must have had enough and it was OK. I asked Mum, “Pop to the loo and I will put our dinner out.” When Mum came out of the loo room, she seemed to be struggling to walk, and it seemed like she couldn’t explain to me how she felt. Worried I took Mum’s hands and led her to the sofa. I put Mum’s feet up on the pouffe, checked on the meals that was in the oven.

Soon our dinner was ready I took Mum’s hands and led Mum to the table. The fish n chips looked nice, but not as lovely as the fabulous meal we had on Friday. Mum did something I hadn’t seen her do before, she put a bit of food in her mouth and chewed it and chewed it with her eyes closed. I asked Mum, “What are you doing?” She opened her eyes a little bit, and just looked at me for a few seconds and she closed her eyes again, it was like she was sleeping, it was bizarre. I kept asking Mum, “Please open your eyes, are you ok?” Mum wasn’t saying anything, I was getting nervous. Mum only had two tiny bites of her meal, I was unable to eat my dinner, I had lost my appetite. I helped Mum back to the sofa.

Mum and Auntie loved to watch, Keeping Up Appearances, So I tried to put it on my laptop, for Mum to watch, but it kept buffering, so instead, by accident, videos of funny clips of animals and people, slipping, tripping falling over or just cute, was put on. I sat opposite Mum and was on my mobile, social media and sometimes I sat next to Mum as she watched on the laptop, she seemed ok. Some of the videos Mum reacted to, some she didn’t.

Usually, Mum wants to go to bed around, 630pm to 7pm but his evening she said nothing, she didn’t even attempt to stand up to give me a hint. I on the other hand had fallen asleep on the cosy sofa opposite Mum, and when I woke up it was 8.50!

I said, “Mum, you need to go to bed,” Mum didn’t reply, so I went over to Mum to help her out of the sofa, holding my hands out for her to give me hers. I was going to walk Mum the short distance to the stairs, but when we got there, Mum was unable to climb the first step. She just stood there, I asked Mum, “Lift you leg Mum,” There was no response, it seemed Mum didn’t know what to do. Knowing Mum needed the loo before she went to bed, so I said to Mum, “Lets go to the other loo over there.” It is smaller in there. I led Mum to the loo, and in there she suddenly froze, there is a table sort of shelf, waist height. Mum held onto this table that is attached to the wall, Mum only needed to step back half a step and then she would have been sitting on the loo, instead Mum was unable to talk, or respond to me, as she held on to the table, she put her head on it and was slowly doing the splits.

I was frightened and knew I needed help and fast. I left Mum and ran and got my phone, I rang William and said, “Mum seems to have gone blank and is slowly slipping to the floor, and is unable to talk to me, how quick can you get here?” William replied, “Ten to fifteen minutes.” I said, “OK, hurry but don’t speed.”

All sorts of things went through my mind, like I wished I hadn’t done the exercise with her and it did seem from then she must have been poorly, but I didn’t know it, Mum was now on the floor on her knees, still holding on very tight to the table just above her head. Would my Mummy come back? What had happened? Was this a quick decline?

Willam arrived with Shona his girlfriend, she stayed in the lounge and William came in the little loo room. Mum was responsive with groans as William asked, “Maxine and I will try and pick you up, will you be able to help us?” Mum didn’t respond, it looked like a desperate situation, for I have been in two car accident, and the thought of attempting to pick Mum up off her knees, while she was doing the splits, hanging on for dear life to the table above her, wasn’t going to work. I said, to William, “you need to phone for an ambulance.”

The operator asked if Mum was, “Breathing and conscious?” William replied, “Yes.” Many other questions were asked, including, “Is Mum hot?” She asked us to, “Put your hand down her back.” I did and Mum was roasting, she asked us to, “Remove her jumper,” The operator said, “An ambulance would take many hours to arrive, maybe up to six hours.” I was shocked, would my Mum last that long? The call ended, it had been on loudspeaker, and we looked at each other, as we stood either side of our beloved Mum. We were unable to remove her jumper as Mum was unable to let go of the table. This seemed to be her last surviving instinct! William said, “That’s it then, we wait,” I trying to be very positive, replied, “I think the ambulance will be here between fifteen to thirty minutes.” He said, “You heard the operator.” As sure as eggs is eggs, the cavalry arrived, fifteen minutes later. It was a welcomed sight; the ambulance crew was a little lady and a huge tall man.

They asked us some questions and they could see Mum wedged upright, still holding on to the table and her poor legs contorted into all sorts of ways. William and I left the little loo room, to let them help Mum. I don’t know how they did it, they quickly got Mum off the floor and sat her on the loo. The gentleman came out of the loo and left the lady in with Mum, so she could use the loo. After they did some test and asked further questions they told us, “Your Mum needs to go to hospital, her heart rate is high.” Between the ambulance crew and William and myself, lots of questions were asked, including should I or not go into the ambulance with Mum, to the hospital? Should I follow in my car? Should I go in William’s car and be dropped off by him, to save on extortionate car parking fees? It was eventually decided, that I would follow my brother and his girlfriend to far outside the hospital grounds, on a quiet but main road and then get into his car and he would park outside the accident and emergency, where the ambulance would be waiting with Mum inside.

Before the ambulance crew left William’s house, they had told us, “Take a picture of the registration or the code on the back of the ambulance, so that when you get to the accident and emergency you will know which ambulance your Mum will be in.” He went on, “In the ambulance waiting ground, as your Mum will be in the ambulance, waiting with all the other ambulances to get into the hospital.”

I took pictures and after the ambulance left William’s home, I followed my brother in his car, to far outside the hospital ground. We parked, then I got out of my car and went into his. William drove me and Shona, right up to the accident and emergency and we went into the packed reception area of the huge hospital, we were then told where to go, to find the actual waiting area where all the ambulances were. Getting back into William’s car, he drove round and round until he suddenly found it.

William and I got out of the car and walked up to the sea of ambulances, we looked for the registration on each vehicle and eventually found the one that Mum was in. I knocked on the ambulance, and Amos answered the door, it was Lovely to see Mum, eyes open looking alert, her jumper had been removed and she was just in her vest and slip with her legs covered from the waist down.

Amos said, “Your Mum will be in this ambulance for a minimum of five hours, before she even gets into the hospital, accident and emergency.” I said, “What do you suggest I do?” He said, “Go home and get some sleep, then phone tomorrow around 8am, I doubt your Mum will have been seem by a doctor then.” They took my phone number and said, “If we need to phone you, it will come up as Caller no ID.” I went inside the ambulance and touched Mum’s bare shoulders and said, “Mum is cold,” Bonnie said, “Mum’s temperature was too high, we need to bring it down, we will offer Mum a sandwich and a cup of tea in a bit,” I replied, “OK,” And kissing Mum on the cheek, I said to her, “You will be safe here in the ambulance with, these lovely people, I will see you in a few hours, OK?” Mum replied, “OK.” William waved to Mum from outside the ambulance, and Mum waved back to him. William then drove me back to my car, that was far outside the vast hospital grounds. I then went back to the empty, quite house with just me in it and no Mum. What did the next crucial hours hold? I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was suddenly hungry. Then at 1.20am the ambulance crew rang me, I hadn’t gone to bed yet.