Filtered (not mum): Hiding in a coffee shop

Currently hiding away in a Starbucks in Croydon while mum is having the biopsy done at the day surgery unit. I left her at about 9am when they took her through to pre-op, which was further than I was allowed to go, though apparently they didn't think she would actually be done until about 11ish.

Taking anti sickness pills didn't seem to work as this morning mum was sick on arriving at the hospital, though thankfully into the bowl I've been carring in the car rather than getting it on the car. Ended up taking her up to the DSU in a wheelchair though, as it left her very weak. Despite telling staff on Friday, and reminding them numerous times this morning that mum is mostly deaf in one ear now and telling them which side to speak to, they kept talking to her on her deaf side, with one nurse whispering her questions into that ear and then wondering why mum didn't respond. Gah.

They're going to use two anaesthetists, which worried me (and I think mum too - she said she wondered if they thought there was another tumour in her throat), though people on irc tell me it's actually quite usual, so I'm a bit more chilled than I was when I left her.

Found out today that the pretty useless diabetic nurse who I was annoyed at anyway told mum last week that all weight loss was good, which left me quite grrrry. It came up because I noticed when doing up mum's hospital gown that it was much looser than last time she had a biopsy. Last time it was fairly tight at the top on the loosest tie they had there, and didn't do up at the back. This time it was loose even on the tightest tie they had there and left no gap at the back. It was a really obvious sign to me of the speed at which she is losing weight at the moment, which is why I keep quietly and not so quietly wibbling about it.

I ended up calling Macmillan (thankfully calls to them are free on major mobile networks) when I got out to the car and wibbled at a cancer nurse there for half an hour. She said that while weight loss may be good from a diabetes pov "this (cancer/not eating/not keeping stuff down) is not how she should be losing weight" and agreed that she probably needs more calories than she's getting/keeping down. The Macmillan lady said I should push for mum to see a nutritionist, though she said that someone would probably refer mum anyway at some point. She also said to be realistic (because of mum's mouth problems she can't eat much veg, or fruit [down to soft fruits like bananas and raspberries, even strawberries are now too hard]) that mum wasn't going to get her five a day and I shouldn't worry about that too much, but to get her to eat what fruit and veg she could. She also said that I should give mum high fat (i.e. regular, rather than diet) food, and aim to keep the sugar in the food down, which sounds like good advice as far as getting calories into her but without messing up her blood sugar too much. At least, I hope it's good advice. It sounded it. Depending on what happens this week I'll try to get mum to her GP and explain (or get her to explain) I'm concerned about mum's eating and weight loss. Hopefully he'll be less blinkered by "losing weight good for type 2 diabetes" :/

ETA: 12/07/11 No longer filtered