Well.
I'm really not sure how to even begin this post... there's been SO much going on in the last month that it's hard to wrap my brain around it all.
So let's just do a brief recap of our life in the DHU and start moving forward again.
First, Lizzy ended up getting diagnosed with Mono.
She'd been super exhausted and sore, but I kept blaming it on general teenage malaise. (Oops... another 'mother of the year moment.') So after the bloodwork came back positive, along with a good ol' case of strep throat, she was banished to her bed for at least two weeks.
Unfortunately, those two weeks couldn't be made up at school, so we had to withdraw her from her beloved SVA because she missed too many days to be promoted to the next grade. (In Georgia, you can't miss more than twenty days of school... even if they're excused.) So now she's an official student of Keystone Academy online for the rest of her Junior year.
It pretty much felt like we'd be sucker punched in the gut at first, but there are definitely some perks. (Sleeping late, and being able to pick up some model jobs are at the top of the list.) Of course, the mono has kicked her ass so she can only be active for a couple hours at a time before retiring to her bed for a long rest. It sucksssssss.
And then there's the second really super bad thing that happened this month. After basically putting band-aids on the situation for as long as we could, we finally made the decision to move Mom to an assisted living community. It was a difficult process because depending on which mood her Alzheimer's had her in, she'd either be ready and willing to move, or dead set against it.
But her memory loss, compounded by some pretty scary hallucinations and fears, made the situation very necessary. (She came at me with a golf club because she thought I was a burglar... NOT GOOD.) We did consider bringing in full time help, but really doubted that would help because she would probably not remember who they were and get freaked out about a stranger in her house.
So we let her pick out her apartment (with a lake view) and bought pretty furniture (didn't want to take stuff from her house, just in case she's able to come home for visits.) It all seemed like it was going to work... until we actually took her to move in.
She was NOT happy. So now, I'm on the shit list... Mom's confused and agitated, and I feel like I have a ball of barbed wire in my stomach. I've been called everything from a saint to a gold digger.
So to sum it up, my life is a little unstable at the moment. Sure, we've had some fun stuff happen in the DHU too, but the yucky stuff has overshadowed it by far. I'm still in the 'processing' phase I think, and at any given moment may laugh hysterically or cry my eyeballs out. My brain won't shut off, so sleep has been elusive. Last night I finally took a Melatonin and got a full 12 hours, so I'm feeling a little more like myself today.
Alzheimers is a total fucking asshole of a beast. Yep, I think that pretty much sums that up.
Yep, January's been a ball buster... in addition to the two biggies, our HVAC tried to die, our health insurance was accidentally cancelled, and my nephew ended up in ICU. I've never been more stressed out or close to full on panic attack/ crisis mode in my entire life, and my liver may be permanently damaged.
So I'm gonna chalk January up to a loss and get ready for a much better February... I hope!
Give me a chance to recover, and we'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming asap. Luv ya!
Hey Jamie - I have read your blog since the scrapbooking store days, but never commented much. Just wanted to reach out to you and let you know that I have been in your shoes with the assisted living with my mom. We (my brothers and me) did the same - just put a band aid on it as long as possible. Moving mom to assisted living was the best thing we could do for her but unfortunately, we lost our mom in May, 2014 and that sucks big time.
Just wanted to let you know that I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
Marilyn C.
Posted by: Marilyn C. | January 29, 2015 at 11:55 PM
Love you sis!
Posted by: Lori | January 31, 2015 at 02:19 PM