So my mother is in the hospital. She had two falls, one at home, where she was found by a home-care worker, and one after being transported by ambulance to the hospital.
The biggest issue is that, as I understand it, the hospital will not discharge her back to her home, saying that she needs to be in a care facility. Nobody disagrees, but setting up a care facility is apparently a difficult task. So I’m going to travel over there, on an unplanned visit, to try to work some things out – if that’s even possible.
I’ll leave Wednesday morning, and fly on 5 different airplanes to arrive at Cairns, Queensland (Klawock to Ketchikan to Seattle to LAX to Brisbane to Cairns). Then I’ll rent a car and drive up to Atherton where the hospital is, for a total travel time of about 40 hours.
I hadn’t planned to be absent for much of January – it leaves the gift store with some unfinished projects, but at least it’s in Jan and Kim’s capable hands.
Emotionally I’m not doing well – but actually, it’s not because of the issues with my mom, directly. Instead, it’s more because I simply have not had a break in far too long. Every time things get “crazy,” I tell myself that “next month” things will slow down and I’ll have a break. Instead, something comes up “next month” and I have to keep pushing hard. January had been set aside, in my mind, as a period to try to recharge a little bit, take some time off, even. Not happening.
I’ll post daily journal type stuff on the blog (with cross-posts to Mastodon), and on facebook (which, to be clear, I despise, but which I maintain in order to stay in touch with people who I care about, who essentially “live” on facebook).
