At my wits end.
Mood: interested, sad,
Listening to: nothing
I've been tempted to join a weblog for a while, but never had the courage to do one myself, because basically I'm a quiet, introverted person. I'm not want one to blow my own trumpet, and if I go to the doctor's he has to drag what's wrong out of me. As I walk through the door he asks "and how are you?" and I always reply "Fine, thank you." I just haven't been brought up to discuss my problems with anyone else.
At last I have managed to grab a few minutes to myself before tea, when no one else is on the computer, and signed up.
Now all I have to do is write my diary.
Two months ago my mother-in-law fell and broke her hip. It's been a long haul travelling to the hospital almost every day to see her, but I am dreading her coming back to her flat tomorrow. My husband and I don't think that she is capable of looking after herself, even though she lives in sheltered accommodation. But Social Services think she is. They've promised a care package - someone to come in in the morning to get her up, someone to come in at tea time and possibly get her ready for bed. They were supposed to come to the flat before she came home to somehow raise her chair and bed so that they were easier for her to get in and out of, but this has not yet happened. And what happens when she wants to go to the toilet when the carers aren't there, or make herself a cup of tea?
The thing is both my husband and I work all day and have a family of our own to look after. Mother-in-law has 3 daughters as well, one lives in Scotland, and the other 2 about 10 miles away, but they don't visit often. She has also managed to get herself in financial difficulties - she's not short of money, she just doesn't bother paying bills when she orders stuff from catalogues. And she's on the suckers list! If there's a scam out there, she'll send them money. We've tried to talk to her about this, but she won't listen. This is now the second time we've had to sort her money problems out, and it's getting us both down. We have so little time together, and when we do, mother-in-law's problems take it all up.
Mother-in-law refuses point blank to go into a nursing home. I can't blame her for that, I wouldn't want to myself, but if she can't, or rather won't, try to help herself, what other option do we have? While she has been in hospital, she has refused physiotherapy according to the nurses, but if we say anything to her, she says that the physiotherapist has said she is doing extremely well. She says she hasn't been eating anything because the food is so horrible, the nurses say she has cleared her plate most of the time.
I just don't know what to do with her when she comes home. It shouldn't be left to me and my husband, and I have told his sisters that, but they say they have problems of their own and can't help anymore.
Do any of you have any suggestions.
