Falling......

Margaret Pilkington

Beacon of light
Overlooker
Falling.....out of bed.
That is what Ma has been up to.
Blow me! We go up to see Ma most days.
I phone her every morning at 8.30 to check what her a.m. Blood sugar is and to find out if there is anything she needs from town.

We were over there last Wednesday as it was her birthday and I had cards and gifts to deliver.....as well as some delectables from Bury Market( Muscat grapes, water melon slices, large english plums, ham shank still warm and on the bone and some little mis-shapen tomatoes that were as sweet as cherries).
Thursday morning Ma beat me to the phone and said that we need not go up as there was nothing she needed until Friday.

That in itself should have set the alarm bells ringing, but it didn't.
Friday we went up, I took the dog a walk while himself chatted to Ma about this and that(mostly crappy films and TV programs).
During the time we were there I noticed nothing untoward.
Anyway Saturday morning I made an unscheduled visit over because a builder had rung me about doing some work on Ma's house.
When I arrived Ma was sat in the kitchen with her pants hoisted above knee level and was bathing a graze on her leg.

I wish you could have seen her face when she realised she had been 'sprung'.
I asked her what she had done. She became a bit evasive and said she couldn't remember....but when pressed she told me that she had fallen out of bed in the early hours of Thursday morning.
She had struggled to get up as she was wedged between the bed and a chest of drawers(which was how she came by the graze).

I looked at her in my best Sister P fizzog and said
'Thursday?? And you are telling me now?
What on earth possessed you to keep quiet about falling out of bed?'

What do you think she said?

'I didn't want to worry you over something trivial'
That was what she said!
I told her that not telling me makes me worry MORE because I am never sure what she is hiding from me.

It did not end there either.
It was Saturday when she told me that her stairlift was on the fritz.
The stairlift that she fought tooth and nail not to have, but now finds indispensable.
So I asked where the paperwork was for the last service( it had the numbers to call for the engineer to come out).
Now when she had the thing serviced in August she had something of an altercation with the engineer and because this paperwork had his signature on it she had taken a fit of pique and put it into the recycling.
I tried all ways to try and find out the number, but late Saturday afternoon I gave up.
So the daft old bird was going to be without the stairlift all over the weekend.
Not only that she confessed that it hurt her to move. Not in any single place, but she ached all over.( I had inspected her for any lumps, swelling and bruises....yes she was bruised, but no lumps or bumps).

I suggested that she took some paracetamol and Ibuprofen on a regular basis and she promised that she would.

Sunday, my son in law took her a roast dinner up and he came back and asked if I knew she had fallen and was in some discomfort.

Yes, I knew about the fall and I did not understand why she would be uncomfortable if she was taking the pain killers as suggested.
I got on the blower.
I asked if she had taken the painkillers as I had suggested....NO.....she hadn't.
I told her that if she didn't take the painkillers then she was bound to be in some discomfort...and that if she had done as she was advised it would be easier for her to move around and she would not be in pain(sigh).

She promised that she would take the meds.
I also suggested that I look for a bed guard and went over and rejigged her bedroom.
'No.....I don't think it needs that' was what she told me.

To be continued.
 
Your mum sounds like a real trouper, Margaret. Stubborn, maybe, frustrating at times, possibly - but trying so hard to manage for herself, not wanting to be any sort of 'nuisance' to anyone (as she would consider it being which of course is certainly not the case) even though she knows and appreciates that those who love her want to help her in every which way they can.

I can understand her independent and stoic spirit - her generation had to have one to get through, and it must be hard for her to have to acknowledge that she can't do everything herself these days.

You are very fortunate that you still have your mum - and she is doubly lucky to have you. I hope she soon gets over her fall.
 
Thanks Dotti.
You are spot on with your comment.
I know just how lucky I am to have here still here....Cancer didn't claim her, a heart attack didn't either.....and this fall hurt her pride and her independence more than her hide.
Apart from a graze on her leg and a few aches and pains from holding herself stiffly is all she has(and those are getting better).It could have been so much worse. I could have found her folded up like an envelope stif and cold by the side of the bed( aargh)
 
Aargh indeed! Bless your Mum, Margaret, for her independent spirit. Mine is very similar - she kept her diagnosis of cancer almost 30 years ago to herself for two whole weeks!!! They drive us crazy, but this is who they are, and how they survived through tough times. I'm very glad your Mum is ok xo
 
Spot on Carolyn....it has taken them a long time to get this ornery.....and the sad thing is I can see myself turning into my mother in the near future.....so we have to accept that this is their eccentricity and get on with it.
 
Back
Top