Difficult and challenging

That's about the kindest description of last week.

Not only was my mother (who was 80 in February) still in hospital, but significant redundancies were announced at work. So far, it would seem that I am not currently at risk. I suppose I should be grateful / relieved / pleased etc, but it's hard to feel anything for myself when lots of other people will have to leave. I think there is more of this to come as well. The situation is not good.

At least I finally got to go and visit my mother last week. She's in a high dependency ward (which tells its own story I suppose) and I wasn't allowed anywhere near whilst I still had the cold. She certainly better than she was when she went in, but her doctors are still no closer to finding out what's actually causing her symptoms. She has low blood pressure and can't walk without falling over. Actually, she can't even sit up for very long. All a bit worrying really.

I was on annual leave on Friday and spent a chunk of the day charging around doing bits of business for her, eg paying bills, sorting out her pension etc. It's a really good thing she set me up with access to her pension and bank accounts at the tail end of last year really.

I suppose I should be glad that she's at least in the right place, but I don't exactly live next door. I'm not a million miles away but far enough that I don't get into the hospital as often as I might like. Still, just got to get on with it I suppose. There are worse things that could be happening right now.