A Long, Long Time

Sorry for not posting in so long, but I was kept away by real-life troubles, mostly medical. To start off with, my mom fell down in the bathroom and couldn't get up. (She definitely didn't want to hear any "I've fallen, and I can't get up" jokes, that's for sure!) She was in horrible pain, and she had a bruise that was nearly 6 inches long over her ribs on the left side, not to mention a purple color more worthy of being exhibited on an eggplant. For a week, she sat and laid around, not doing too much.

Finally, in terrible pain and feeling she could no longer live like that, she went to the hospital on Saturday night. After waiting around for hours, she was X-rayed and then CAT-scanned. The resident on duty told her she had nothing to worry about... she didn't break anything, she was just contused. She went home with some hospital-supplied painkillers. Well, lo and behold, the next morning, we got a call from the hospital. Turns out she had cracked "a few" ribs after all!

She was told that she would need about 2 months to heal. Since just breathing, let alone walking long distances or anything strenuous like that, was going to be beyond her, I got deputized into being cook, food shopper and laundry-folder, while my dad took over cleaning and doing laundry in the first place. In addition to my job at the Library, this pretty much sucked up all my available time for doing anything except reading to de-stress.

It took my mom a long time to heal. Unfortunately, being unable to do much walking meant that when she finally did heal her ribs, she is still unable to do walking and other tasks at the level she did them before. She gets tired much more easily, and has to stop and rest at a rate she finds particularly alarming. Even with exercise and the passage of time, things haven't gotten much better for her.

Meanwhile, my other Mom, Anne (a friend I call "mom" out of love), ended up in the hospital herself. She has Diabetes, and she doesn't take care of herself very well. An infection in her foot got way out of hand, and she had to have two toes amputated. If they couldn't control the infection, they were going to have to remove her foot at the knee. Eee! That's a horrible thing to have happen to anyone, much less someone you love like a mom!

Luckily, they were able to get the infection under control, and they didn't have to cut off part of her leg. But, still, she is going to need a prosthetic for her foot, just to be able to walk again. She has left the hospital and is now in a nursing home where she is undergoing a course of therapy and will eventually get the prosthetic fitted. I hope to be able to see her sometime in November.

Since then, I finally got some relief for my loneliness. My friend Rachel came over during the Memorial Day weekend, arriving on Thursday and going home Sunday. So, I finally feel able and in a good enough mood to start this Blog once again. So, there's my explanation for being away. I hope stuff this bad never happens to you.