Sometimes it really is the little things

Oh, beauty!

These are the words Mum greeted me with when I brought her cleaned dentures to her this morning. Her enthusiasm was rather disarming. Let me explain why.

After breakfast each morning, I clean Mum's teeth for her, and when I bring them back from the bathroom, I bring a little mug of bicarb mouthwash and a swab for her to freshen her mouth. The nurse who visits gave us a number of special oral swabs, that have heads made of stiff foam/sponge that is cut in a corrugated, 'zig-zag' pattern (especially helpful for scraping the coating off her tongue).

When the nurse gave us these swabs, she only had a few, and gave us a number of standard cotton swabs with them (like giant sized cotton buds), and so we have been using these cotton swabs since Mum got home from hospital. Yesterday when our new nurse came, I asked him if he had any more of the foam swabs that he could give us, as these do a much better job than the cotton ones. He gave us what he had (which was only a few) and then today dropped in a bundle of them so we won't run out in a hurry.

So this morning was the first day that I was able to bring Mum one of these better swabs for her morning mouth regime, and she showed her approval accordingly.

Oh, beauty!

I think I was rather surprised by her reaction, as she had been in quite a bit of pain when she woke up (which was a bit later today, at 8:30am), so I guess the pain med must have been starting to kick in by that stage, and she was quite chipper.

Another thing that has surprised me, is how much Mum has enjoyed looking at the photos from Grand Final day. When our neighbours decked our halls in red and white, I took a number of photos using my iPhone (and I was sure I would have blogged about Mum's beloved Swannies winning the Grand Final for her, complete with pictures of our red and white house, but it looks like I forgot to do that... BAD DAUGHTER! I'll include a couple of shots below). 

Mum had been asking me for a while to get the photos from my phone printed, so she could enjoy them and show them to friends without having to squint at the small screen of my phone. I finally did that this week, and Mum has been quite excited by how well the prints came out.

The house- decked out in its red and white on AFL Grand Final day.

After the match- Victory is sweet :-)

 The other night, she was poring over the prints, muttering about how great they came out, and thinking about which ones she wants me to print extras of to send to a niece in the US.

This morning, when I went in to organise to clean Mum's teeth, she was again going through the prints, and saying that she can't believe how well they came out. 


It was quite delightful to watch her alertness and excitement as she was doing this, reminding me that my Mum is still there, inside the shrinking shell of a body she inhabits. It's been interesting for me to reflect on the fact that it's often the little things, like the photos and the mouth swab, that bring out this truth. 

So the little things really do matter; we should never ignore them.