a fortuitous lapse

Up bright and early this morning to take my mum for her gastroscopy. When I arrived I could clearly detect the faint smell of cooking. I enquired as to the origin of the smell and she informed me that she had indeed enjoyed a bowl of porridge just an hour earlier. Somewhat ironic, I felt, in view of the fact that the endoscopy was arranged to investigate her persistent nausea and loss of appetite, yet on the very day she NEEDED to fast she ate a hearty breakfast!

Naturally I am to blame: I should have warned her to starve herself prior to the test when I phoned her last night. I just took it for granted she would know all about it, which in retrospect was incredibly stupid of me.

But we went up to the gastroenterology clinic anyway and went through the process. I clearly heard my mum flat out deny she had eaten anything and I forbore from contradicting her at that point. Then it occurred to me that if the procedure went ahead and she vomited mid-examination, she might inhale vomit and die of aspiration pneumonitis.

So I drew the nurse aside when she had completed her questions and quietly told her what mum had told me earlier. Within minutes the consultant came in to the cubicle to speak to us and straightway announced that it was off. He followed up with a series of questions that led him to conclude that the investigation (which involves passing an endoscopic camera down the gullet into the stomach and beyond, and is well known to be extremely unpleasant) was probably not necessary after all, and that a change of anti-emetic might be a better option. How about that? I'd say she had a lucky escape.

My day off work, however was not totally wasted. While driving her to the hospital in her car she read out a letter she could not understand: it was from the DVLA and stated that she had not renewed her tax disc and had been fined £65. When we got home I phoned the direct-line "paying fines hotline" then with some difficulty unearthed her registration, insurance and MOT documents and drove straight to the post office to renew her disc. This is the first time to my knowledge she has forgotten to keep up with her legal responsibilities, and I must say I was a little disturbed by how blase she appeared about the whole thing. I tried to explain she could have been arrested or even had her car seized, but her "belle indifference" had kicked in big time.