Disability – Well Eye Never

Christmas 2025 Favourites – Part 2

Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a wonderful time this festive season. Or if it’s been a difficult period, or even a tough year overall, then I hope 2026 works out better for you.

My mother and I are certainly hoping it will be more positive after everything we’ve been through in the last 12 months. I’ve written a lot about being a carer for her, and recently brought our story up to date by reflecting on the year and the considerable progress we’ve made. We did have a lovely, relaxing, over-indulgent Christmas, I’m pleased to say, so that’s put us in the right frame of mind for the year ahead. The future of my job is very uncertain, granted, but whatever happens with that I’ll be alright. So fingers crossed things continue to go well for us.

I previously posted about the things I enjoyed during the advent period leading up to Christmas, so now it’s time to catch up with all the other entertainment that’s been keeping me occupied since then. So let’s jump straight into it, and I hope you enjoy!

Caring For Mum – Part 5 – Reflections

What a year this has been. It was always going to be the case that Mum’s health would decline in some way at some point, given her age and disability, but neither she nor I had bargained on the spiral that took hold during the past 12 months, especially during the spring and summer. That’s why I started writing my carer’s journal posts – partly as a cry for help and a bit of therapy for myself early on, but mainly to raise awareness of what it’s been like for me as a carer, as it’s the sort of thing that goes unnoticed behind closed doors.

I’ve always been my mother’s carer to some extent, ever since I was old enough to help her out with things. But it’s only in this past year that it’s really felt like it, given how much more attention I’ve had to give to her, at the expense of my leisure time and wellbeing, because of the mental and physical consequences of her sight loss and all the falls she’s been having.

However, I’m pleased to say that we’ve actually ended the year in a much better position than when we started it. Things aren’t exactly the way they were before, and never will be, but given all the support we’ve received, Mum is in a much better frame of mind and we’re on a much more stable footing for the year ahead, and therefore we feel like we can get on with our lives in a similar way to how we used to.

So as a bumper post to finish the year, I want to reflect on the events of the past 12 months and bring things right up to date, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – December 2025

Here’s another set of journal entries on my life as a carer, to bring things up to date before Christmas. Then I’ll do another post to cover the Christmas period, which will take us into the new year.

The month didn’t start off well in terms of my career, as my support work role is now looking untenable, despite the government claiming it wants disabled people in work. So do excuse my rant in the first journal entry!

But at home things have been a lot better, in terms of Mum’s health and medical appointments, coupled with our preparations for Christmas. I was even able to meet a friend for a festive meal, which was lovely, and look at some of the decorations in the city.

So here’s what’s been going on so far this month, which I hope you find interesting as always.

October & November 2025 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re doing alright and are looking forward to Christmas.

During the last couple of months, my mother has been recovering well from her fractured wrist, both physically and mentally, thanks to all the support she’s received from the NHS and social services. There still are, and always will be, times when she gets anxious or finds things difficult of course. But having melatonin to help her sleep at night, and a wheelchair to help her get out and about more, has given her a real boost, along with various other forms of help she’s had. And at the very end of November I was even able to go out for a long walk and explore the shops by myself like I used to do, because she felt able to cope on her own.

You can find out more about all of that in my journal posts as usual, including some recovery of my own after I had a wisdom tooth extracted. You can also hear an interview I recorded in October for RNIB Connect Radio about my caring role, which was featured in their Good Company show and then released independently as a podcast.

All that aside, I’ve naturally been enjoying plenty of entertainment as well including Doctor Who, comedies, podcasts and audiobooks. So that’s what I’m going to focus on here, and I hope you enjoy this latest roundup!

Carer’s Journal – November 2025 – Part 2

Time to bring you up to date once again with my life as a carer. And things have gone much better than expected in the latter half of this month, as neither Mum nor I have had any problems resulting from our minor bits of surgery (I had a wisdom tooth out, while she had a small skin biopsy). And Mum’s continued to have more confidence and less anxiety, in large part thanks to her wrist recovery and improved sleep cycle, to the point where I’ve been able to go out for a while by myself like I used to do. So this is quite a positive update, I’m happy to say, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – November 2025 – Part 1

Welcome to the latest of my journal posts as an unpaid carer, and I’m happy to say that things are continuing to move in the right direction for my mother so far this month. I’ve taken her out in her new wheelchair a couple of times, the reablement care has come to an end so that we can get back into a proper routine, her sleep pattern has improved, and we’ve had another nice mental health appointment. I’ve explained more about all of that in my diary entries below, along with a few other bits and pieces.

In addition, I’ve also appeared on the radio during the past couple of weeks! Back in October I was interviewed by Amelia Hilton for RNIB Connect Radio about my experience of being a carer, in response to the posts I’ve been sharing about it, and it’s now been broadcast and shared online.

You can hear my interview as part of the Good Company Show from November 4, where I also pick a song that means a lot to me, or as a dedicated podcast. So I hope you find it interesting, and thank you so much to Amelia and the team for featuring my story!

I’ve had very kind comments about my caring role from other people as well recently, as you’ll see in these journal posts, which I’m humbled by and grateful for.

So let’s get on with the latest updates, and as always I hope you find it of interest.

Caring For Mum – Part 4 – Breaking Point

At the beginning of August I wrote about the decline in my mother’s physical and mental health, given her struggles to adapt to her blindness and the fact she was having a lot of falls, one of which had fractured her collarbone. And that in turn was impacting my own wellbeing, as I had to devote a lot more time and energy to her needs.

We were in a bad way at the time, with no certainty as to if, how or when things would get better, so that we could get back to some sense of a normal life. Several people have said they’ve found those posts very moving, and my friends have kept in close contact to ensure that I’m ok, for which I’m very grateful.

Shortly after making that trilogy of posts, things took a further turn for the worse, as Mum fell and broke her wrist. My big fear of things spiralling even more out of control appeared to have been realised.

However, alongside the stressful and lengthy recovery process, the incident also triggered a chain of events that have resulted in Mum receiving a lot more help and support than either of us expected, to such an extent that she’s now in a much more relaxed and positive state than I’ve seen her in for ages. It’s a shame that it took an accident to be the catalyst for all that support, but so far it seems to have been a bit of a blessing in disguise.

We’re not out of the woods yet, as she is still finding some things difficult, and I’m still having to spend a lot of time looking after her. So it is still tiring and stressful sometimes, there’s still a lot of stuff we need to sort out, and there will always be the risk of further setbacks. But we are getting through the days much more easily now, and we have greater hope and optimism for the weeks and months ahead, and all being well there should be more big developments by the end of the year.

So I want to reflect on our journey in the last few months, to bring things up to date. I have been writing extensive journal posts as well, but this is a good opportunity to summarise what’s been happening, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – October 2025 – Part 2

Now we’re getting somewhere. In the last couple of weeks, there have been some huge leaps forward in my mother’s situation, giving us a welcome sense of relief and optimism after such a long, hard summer. So in this latest instalment of my carer journal posts, I’m happy to share some very positive developments that, fingers crossed, bode well for the remainder of the year.

Carer’s Journal – October 2025 – Part 1

Welcome to the next part of my carers journal, in what is set to be an important transitional month for us, as my mother is hopefully coming out of her cast in the second half of October. We’ve also had some very significant news this month that will greatly enhance her ability to get out and about again, and we’re still looking into her long-term care options as well. So there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel if everything works out. Here’s what’s been happening during the last few weeks.

September 2025 Favourites

Welcome to my latest monthly roundup, I hope you’re doing well.

In terms of my caring responsibilities towards my mother, who is still recovering from her broken wrist, I’ve continued posting separate journal updates about everything that’s been going on, split into Part 1 and Part 2 for this month. So do read those posts if you want to be kept informed about that side of my life. Suffice to say that while we are still finding things difficult in some ways, she is continuing to get various forms of help, and we are now starting to consider the support required for her longer term care needs. Plus we’ve already had a very positive development at the start of October, perhaps the most significant to date, that has the potential to make a huge difference long-term. I’ll tell you about that in my October journal posts in the weeks ahead, and it’s going to be an important transitional month if all goes to plan.

Apart from all that though, I have kept myself entertained in various ways as well, with music, TV shows and an audiobook. So here are the main things I’ve been enjoying, and I hope you find them interesting to read about as always.

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