One of Mum’s reablement support workers noticed that Mum had a large dimple in her right breast on Monday. I wondered if she had just laid funny in bed and asked my GS if she would get the evening shift to have a look and see if it had gone. Of course GS just didn’t bother so we were none the wiser until the morning shift when I was there. The thing hadn’t gone away so with surprisingly little effort we managed to get a doctor out to have a look at her.
She said Mum has a lump in her breast and she is referring her to the hospital under the 2 weeks’ wait rule. Unfortunately I work in the same hospital and I’m well aware of what this 2 weeks’ wait referral means and it aint good.
I’m in bits. Poor Mum how much more of this can she take? She keeps asking me if I think it will be bad news and I try and be reassuring but I’m finding it hard. I keep telling her that it may just turn out to be a cyst or something of that kind and is more likely to be benign if it turns out to be anything more but I’m not convincing myself never mind her.
I’m also panicking about the logistics of helping her and ferrying her to and fro. My workplace is not exactly supportive when it comes to this kind of thing and I can’t afford to take unpaid leave to help her out. GS doesn’t drive (her partner has just forked out for a shiny new top of the range jag but volunteer any assistance) and it will fall on me, as usual. Added to which Mum has said repeatedly that she doesn’t like GS involved in her upkeep in any way. Can’t say I blame her, I’d feel the same.
Then, of course, in skips the GS full of merriment having unilaterally made the decision that she would be staying on two of the three days I am at work ‘because it would make things easier for me’. I saw Mum’s face at this suggestion. It would only be a matter of time before she decided that her partner wanted to go out or disappear for their 93rd holiday of the year leaving me holding the baby. She’d even gone so far as bringing clothes with the idea that Mum would just leap at the idea of her there for three days in a row.
Why on earth would she imagine that I’d want to make anything easier for her after the way she has behaved?
She needs to be replaced.