Fairies

This weekend is a busy one for us. Theres a lot going on. It is Australia Day long weekend, Alexander has basketball here there and everywhere, we have parties and playdates to attend and the big squirrel needs to clean out his things from the garage of his childhood home.  We were in the garden there when I got a call from Mum.
She was just ringing for a chat. She had not been well- just a cold. She had visited her GP on Wednesday with a sinus infection and got antibiotics. I had seen them on Friday and she wasn't good. I think she was having trouble seeing, but had headaches - sinus ones she said, and she spent most of the visit asleep on the couch. What troubled me about this was the last time she'd felt like this was when she had had the bleed on the brain which started this whole journey, over 18 months ago. As you can imagine I was worried.
I am in the large, overgrown backyard in the sunshine with the kids and the big squirrels families are saying their own goodbyes to the house that has given them so many memories. Mum calls and it doesn't even feel like it is her. She is distracted to say the least. She cant get her phone to work. I call her back and they can't answer it. Conversation is disjointed to say the least. She just stops talking mid sentence as if she has disappeared away somewhere. If she is there she will ask a question, listen to the answer but say something else. Random. Disconnected.
I talk to Dad who is at a bit of a loss. He said she is 'away with the fairies today'. So accurate a description. She was slipping away. He couldn't talk much as she was there. I couldn't do anything and we would only be in the way, so continued our day with the worry never far from our minds.  After basketball the next day we called in to see them. She wasn't fabulous, but had obviously improved since the day before. Dad explained to me what had been going on and it was like she had slipped into a dementia state. She couldn't use a spoon for example and had to be fed.
Desperate for some understanding, I spoke to a girlfriend who works in the neuro ward at the hospital and has a good understanding. She explained that an infection can bring on symptoms. It can speed the process up, it can be a momentary spike or a general decline. The body spends all its time fighting the mild infection, that it leaves the big fight for a bit.
Thankfully, she seems to have come out of the fog but I feel that you can see the progression of the disease from last week. She can get around now and eat, she is just weaker, less of her.

Much less.