Mum: An Update

Firstly, thanks for all your kind words over the last week. It's been a difficult time and all your well wishes have meant a really big deal to us all.

We've been to the hospital every day to see mum. She's getting a little better with every day, but has to spend much of the day in an oxygen mask and absolutely hates it. In fact as I write this Tara and Dad are in hospital with her - I've come back to work after a weeks absence - and she's refusing to have it back on. The fact she has been off the oxygen so long is causing hypoxia; this in turn causes confusion, hostility and memory loss. She's being nasty to everybody around her, and being her typical stubborn self. She's also so confused she's convinced she spent yesterday evening at home.

I'll be going there straight after work. Hopefully by then somebody has convinced her that the oxygen mask is for her own good. Every minute she spends in it must be hell - it looks painful to watch her breathing through it - but it's reinflating her lungs and doing her the world of good. For all intents and purposes, it's giving her her life back with each breath she makes through it.

There will be a difficult few months ahead of us, if indeed she ever gets fully better at all. We can only keep our fingers crossed at this stage.