17) Still in hospital six weeks later.

 After a few visits over the past few days, I have not updated as my mojo has buggered off - skiing probably - which is where I belong this time of year. That I haven't been and have nothing booked is nigh on killing me in itself.

After dad had the diagnosis in June 2025, I was under the impression he had months not years left and so I didn't book my regular jolly to the mountains. He has now been in hospital 6 weeks, with no sign of him coming home any time soon, I'm slightly waffled - knowing I could have gone. However the hospital give the impression he should be home really soon. Here lies the problem - his 3 broken ribs were healed enough for him to come home after 2-3 weeks, however, as the paramedics had to report the house due to safeguarding issues, there are now about 37 people involved in the discharge process - and none of them know what the others are doing.

Four times he has been told he can go home by staff who don't know the full picture. He has been told many different things by many different people and he's still there asking me what's happening. And I don't know.

I do know that an assessor came to the house and she said there was no way he can go home safely to that house. 'There will need to be a path wide enough for a Zimmer frame at the very least.' she said. 'Perhaps we can take out his double bed and replace it with a single bed.' She also suggested the 3 piece suite sofa and armchair could be chucked out leaving just his chair. The space would then be able to be filled with other stuff currently lining the hallway, stairs etc etc.

I'm surprised she knew the other sofa and chair were there - you can't see them - they're buried under mountains of stuff.  I was quite happy for them to get rid of the sofa and armchair - they're flattened and a nasty pale blue velour. However, it's not the getting rid that's the problem, it's the digging them out which would take days. Many man hours. She had brought a man with a van round with her. He said he was used to doing this kind of work. He was only there to assess so he could prepare a quote.

The assessor put her findings to dad in hospital. He refused to have anyone in there he didn't know. He also told her he wouldn't be using one of those damn frame things to walk. She persuaded him they weren't allowed to throw anything out he had not specifically signed for and even without the frame she would have to make it safe.

He finally agreed they could throw out the mattress in the spare room and they could move things into 2 spare rooms if they had to.

Now they need to provide a quote, if he can't pay, they will need to apply for a grant. This is likely, I assume, to take weeks.

When I went to visit him last night he asked me to look at Ant's bed as he said the leg had fallen off and it was probably just a screw that had come out. I asked Ant - he said it wasn't a screw - the leg had snapped. On further inspection, Ant has two mattresses on his bed and has had these since 1986. We think it was when my grandad died and the 2 mattresses came from his flat. No wonder Ant has had a bad back - there's no support and the leg is in two halves. I asked if we should ask them to get rid of the oldest mattress while they were getting rid of the other one. He said 'NO! they aren't concerned about this one it's the other one they want to throw out. We can put that one in the attic...'

'No way!' I said. 'Absolutely no way! Why can't we throw it out - why would we need a spare mattress which is 40 years old? A mattress only has about 7 years shelf life. No we're not keeping it.'

'In case we need a single bed for someone to look after me! a mattress lasts as long as it's comfortable. Seven years! That's poppycock! Ludicrous! No way - that's just a rumour from bed manufacturers wanting to sell more beds! That's a RIDICULOUS thing to say.'

I reminded him of the horsehair mattress I had in my room. 

'Yes, but during the war we didn't have much choice you see. We had to take what was available.'

I reminded him I was born over 20 years after the war ended.

'So?' he said - clueless.

'I'm highly allergic to horses.' I reminded him.

'Yes.'

'So this is the reason I was so sick when I was young. Twenty years sleeping on a horsehair mattress full of dust and house dust mites, and it was at least twenty years old when I was born!'

He fell silent for all for a few seconds, then 'Maybe. It's possible of course... Anyway let's not discuss that now.'