It started with a phone call from my youngest brother saying he was having a nervous breakdown and could I come right away?
That led to days of juggling two very sick people - one my 11.5 a1C brother who hadn’t eaten anything of substance in a month and was down 26 pounds and my severe demential, type 2 diabetic, incontinent and becoming more and more obstinate mother all while juggling a burgeoning business on self-care.
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arrange for a social worker, ot, pt home health aid to come in.
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coordinate with brothers
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review mom’s financials
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review mom’s meds
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prepare mom’s food. (bro only wants pringles and Ensure - ugh)
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wash copious amounts of laundry
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breathe in toxic air from fabric softeners - a sophisticated lung hell.
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nurture and support mentally unhealthy brother
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urge him to eat healthy food
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Tuesday brother wakes up and goes to the er - 3rd doc visit in 5 days asking to be admitted.
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I regrouped and asked social worker to come earlier
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met with social worker in span of 40 arranged for medical and financial power of attorney to be split between bernie and I
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arranged for me to take mom to my house
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arranged for a placement specialist to start work on placing mom immediately
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filled out medicaid paperwork
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coordinated with support system at my house to make sure we were prepared for what lay ahead in our home to care for mom in the interim
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met with placement specialist in my area
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arranged for home placement assessment on Friday
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saw facility on Friday
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LOVED it.
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I had visualized the best outcome possible and this is it.
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aside from mom miraculously ‘coming to’ and back to her old self, she is headed hopefully soon, to her forever place
It’s really hard to: cajole her into going to the bath room, get her to sit and check her ‘brief’, wipe my mom’s ass (she understandably gets really snarky)
Coordinate with my brothers
Check on my little brother, and support him even though my 6 year old part HATES having that responsibility.
Coordinating things like forgetting her Blood Glucose monitoring kit.
Battling opinions from EVERYONE about what’s best for mom.
Hearing that on the way back from getting more test strips this morning, my kids witnessed a kid hit by a car and possibly dying (not sure based on what the ambulance workers were saying) while I’m writing this….
Self-care - wtf!
Oh, and in the middle of all this is my 6 year anniversary since beginning my own journey to heal my type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol and uber fluffiness - I’ve healed these things with food and mindset shifts and a tool chest I continually supplement. It’s a bit over 12 years since healing myself from severe allergy induced asthma, fibromyalgia, severe hives arthritis and joint pain, a relationship no longer serving me….
So, i'm feeling all my feels, grateful the SWCC of this week is over. Breathe. if all else fails, breathe. Eating over it won't solve a thing.
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