Yesterday 30th Sept 2015

Another scorcher today – happy days.

However, my house is a mess and I will need to tidy today – sad days….. (I could tidy it quickly)

I wake up at 6.45am. I check on my mum and she is still asleep. I wake my children………….they go to school, it is 8am. I tidy their rooms and make their beds. I check on my mum and she is still asleep.

It is 9am and the carer has not arrived yet. I wait, I wait, I wait………….. I wait. It is now 9.40am. I decide to get washed and changed.

Still no carer.

I decide to get my mum up and ready for the day and I am hoping that the carer will arrive whilst I am doing this. I go to my garden shed and fetch the full body hoist. I put the sling for the full body hoist on my mum, and attach the full body hoist to the sling. It is hard going and I am roasting hot,  I raise my mum up and take her pyjama bottoms and pad off, this is not an easy task either. I lower my mum onto the commode. I leave her for ten minutes. The telephone rings. It is the carer,  he said that he was running late and that he would not arrive until 10.30am. I explain to him that I had already begun getting my mum ready and I ask him to call before he is due to arrive, as I might have my mum ready by then.

My mum is ready. The carer calls.

I dry my mums hair and I brush her teeth. I give my mum her breakfast and then I clean the house. My mum does not go to the day care centre today which means she can relax at home and watch me hustle and bustle around the house or in the garden.

The sun is shining.  I need to go out. I use the stand aid and transfer my mum from her chair in the livingroom to her wheelchair. I take my mum out into the back garden.

I receive a call from the human rights lawyer that I spoke to at the beginning of the week. He explained that his firm will not be able to deal with my mums case as they do not regularly deal with care home abuse cases. He asked me if he could give my details and the case details to another firm, a firm that they know and who regularly deals with care home abuse cases. I said yes.  I asked if they accepted legal aid cases. He said they did, however, it would be up to them to advise me if they felt my mum would be able to obtain legal aid.

Apparently, to receive legal aid you need to be able to prove that you can win substantial compensation. What is all that about???? To me that is another black hole which allows vulnerable people to be abused, especially those living in poverty, who cannot afford to take action against their abusers.

Everything feels unjust and unfair.

Back to the sunshine, back to my book.

I make lunch and then I feed my mum whilst I feed myself.

I have a missed call from my tutor, I call him back. We have a discussion about my up and coming placement. I asked my tutor what his thoughts are on me not being able to carry out my placement within my own local authority. He explains that sometimes local authorities cannot accommodate placements and he said that this is nothing to worry about. He then spoke about the logistics of me going to another area for my placement and I confirmed that I was willing to do this. He also spoke about balancing my caring role alongside my placement and said that he knew this would be difficult. I explained that I had done this before and that I felt able to do it again.

More sun……. My mum is beginning to look too hot. I stand her up and take her for a walk, I sit her in her wheelchair and I wheel her into the house, I stand her up and walk her to her chair in the livingroom I then I sit her in her chair and switch on the TV.This is not an easy thing to do as you are putting an awful lot of pressure on your back. My mum does nothing to help you during any of these processes, not because she does not want to she just does not know how too.

More sun…….

My children arrive home. I have a doctor’s appointment. I leave my son with his granny and take my daughter with me to the doctors. We collect a chinese meal on the way home. My son and daughter stand my mum up and they then sit her in her wheelchair. We all have dinner in the garden.

The carer arrives at 6pm. We wash my mum and change her into her pj’s. We lie my mum on her bed, on top of her covers as it is really hot, I raise the bed and put on my mums TV.

More sun……..

I do the dishes and then I make my mum a cup of tea. I sit with my mum in her room for a while. My mum is sleepy. It is 8pm. I put her bed into a lying position and leave the room.

I watch television and then go to bed.