Mithered

How do you make someone eat or drink when they don't want to, or feel like it?

I'm visiting my Mum and Sister in Shrewsbury.

Mum still isn't right. Mentally she's a lot better, but she gets tired very easily, sleeps a lot and doesn't eat or drink nearly enough. Last night she went to bed around 9.30 and didn't get up until around 11.00 this morning. After a couple of hours or so, in which time she had half a very small dish of porridge and maybe two mouthfuls of tea, she went back to bed for an hour feeling light headed.

I made her a cheese and ham sandwich. Just one slice of bread. She ate a single, small bite, of a size that would have shamed a toddler. Now, a couple of hours on, she is attempting a banana. After two bites I have had to tell her to force it down, because she really doesn't want to eat it. Her blood sugar levels must be as low as you can get; it's no wonder she feels light headed.

At this rate she's going to be back in hospital in a week or so, getting fluids etc through a drip. She doesn't want that and neither do we.

But it doesn't alter the fact that she barely eats or drinks.

On the positive side, she is reasonably cheerful and good humoured.

But I don't know what we're going to do, to be honest, if she doesn't improve. There just aren't the services there used to be; no cover. And although she gets more support from the family than many of her age do, she is still on her own one full day a week.

I dunno.