The concept of groundhog day has been popularised in the film by that name with Bill Murray as the main character, where he experiences the same day occurring over and over again. This happens for Mum every time there is someone new taking care of her. That could be a new carer, or as with events this week, even with someone new in the kitchen.
Mum has special needs. She is not the person going slowly demented, and waiting to die. She is bright of mind, but has lost muscle in her arms and legs. She cannot use her hands or do anything for herself. She has no grip, and no movement in her fingers and her hands hang from a wrist no longer strong and straight. She can only feed herself by using special cutlery with very thick handles that she is only able to partially grip, and move them using the strength that still remains in her upper arms. This is all because she has a neurological condition – a form of slow progressing motor neuron disease where all her limb muscles are wasting away.
Because she cannot cut anything, she has instructions on the name tag on her food tray for her food to be cut into bite size pieces. I was unexpectedly there when she had lunch this week and the food came all shredded, ie, slightly larger than if it had been grated. Even the peas were chopped up!