Things are a Little Better

As the title says things have been a little better since last time I blogged.

Thursday evening wasn't too great however. I had cooked one of Margaret,s favourite meals, Shepherd's Pie, but soon after we had sat down Margaret became upset over something, but I didn't know what. She then got on to my being a liar about Louis and the wine incident and finally ended up screaming at me and taking herself of to her bedroom with out touching her dinner. After a while and when I had finished my dinner I went and asked her if she wanted her dinner warmed up and she said that she didn't want it. I saved some for Louis' dinner on Saturday, threw the rest away and cleared up before settling in front of the TV. About 8.30 pm Margaret came into the lounge and said that she was hungry and wanted another glass of wine ( No.2 and we are both counting now). She wanted a peanut butter sandwich so I made her one and she settled down as if there had been nothing wrong. Louis even came out from his hiding place and joined us. Finally I worked out that she had been upset by a phone call from Blue Care which I had received earlier in the day asking me to confirm that I wanted respite care this coming Wednesday while I went to my computer club. Margaret said that she didn't want respite care and I could leave her on her own for four hours. I told her that I could not do that and she was off again and went to bed at about 9.30 pm. I went in later and settled her down for the night making sure that she took her medications.

Friday morning she woke up in a reasonable mood and we decided to go out to a local Thai restaurant for lunch. It was a great success. We both had a mild curry and rice which was superbly cooked by the owner. She is a little Thai lady and her children, a boy and a girl both about 20, serve at the table. One thing about living in a tourist area is that there are plenty of good little restaurants.

After lunch Margaret had a rest and got up about 6.30 pm for a sandwich and her glass of wine (No. 1). She watch TV with me and a bit later asked if she could have another drink and I said she could (No.2). After that program we were watching ended she went to bed. It had been a good day.

Saturday she was very tired, a side effect of toxin build up is lethargy, so she remained in bed while I did the washing. We have had several weeks of heavy rain but Saturday was bright and windy so everything dried beautifully and there was no washing drying around the house and garage. Dinner was cold roast chicken and salad which Margaret likes and we had a bottle of sparking white wine which we are not allowed to call champagne in Australia but it tastes much the same:) Margaret doesn't like The Bill which I watch on Saturday evening so she went to bed early after her second glass of wine. Another good day.

Sunday it rained and I caught up with the inside housework while Margaret rested. Not much happened and apart for a little spat from Margaret when I couldn't understand what she was trying to say - something about "what's his name's whats it"- she was in a good mood. In the afternoon I backed up Margaret's computer as she has developed a habit of deleting her photos after she views them. I will be able to do a complete restore every couple of days. She spends a lot of time just browsing her photos so it is very important that she doesn't loose any. Luckily I have stored most, if not all, of them on a Network Attached File Server, and on CDs so I can generally get them back for her. Note that somehow or other she also empties her rubbish bin each time she logs off so it is not just a simple restore job. We had a light evening meal and Margaret went to bed early after 2 1/2 glasses of sparkling wine.

Monday was much of the same. Margaret being very lethargic and docile ( I love that word!). I cooked marinated chicken pieces in our Weber kettle for dinner with roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy. She said, "I don't like it and the is too much". She then proceeded to eat the lot. We had a couple of glasses of wine each and she went to bed at 9.30pm.

Today she is still in a good mood. She doesn't want out come out to the library with me and will rest up.

Her GP, A, thinks that Margaret's condition is stable at present so we have month off from blood tests etc. However because of her limited (25%) renal function toxins are still affecting her brain and causing this lethargy. It is probably that she will remain in this state until her renal function drops again which could be triggered by an infection, flu or some thing like that. While she is quiet I can cope and I hope that last weeks behaviour doesn't return. The test will be tomorrow when the the Blue Care respite carer turns up and I disappear for the afternoon.