Day 69, 70 & 71: Daily Grind

Wow...3 days in one blog post. How boring my life has become. And yet, it doesn't feel like I have any extra time on my hands. How does that work?

After the excitement of my nephew's birth last week, the boys and I all got sick this week. I'm starting to feel better finally. Christopher is on the mend, Jonathan is right in the thick of it. And I can't help but reflect on the timing of it all. I couldn't have had any of us sick for the past 71 days. There just wasn't time. Okay, so we had little things here and there, but nothing that lasted a week. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that once things finally settled down, our body's defense systems came off high alert as well. But we're getting through it, although it's been an incredibly long week.

I haven't talked to mom and dad this afternoon, although talked to them as usual this morning and as of right then, they were still planning on attending Eileen's funeral today. I'm hoping they made it. I'll find out more when I call tonight.

I talked to Hospice yesterday because mom had started saying that she didn't think she needed them anymore. I didn't like the idea of just not having Hospice anymore, so I was curious to hear what Hospice would say themselves. I talked to Ruth, one of mom's nurses, and she said that mom certainly still falls within the boundaries of Hospice care, but that they were more than happy to cut back to just one visit a week. She said she thought it was good for someone to still come and take mom's vitals once a week and I agreed. She also said that this gives my dad the 1-800 hotline to call 24/7 in case they need anything. She said that mom's case would be reviewed at her 3 month mark in July and we could all re-assess things then. As we were hanging up Ruth asked me if she could ask me a question. She mentioned that mom's memory was pretty bad and was wondering if that was normal or more intense since the cancer diagnosis. I told her it was much worse since the cancer and then the chemo. But I was so grateful she mentioned it because so many others seem to be ignoring it. She said that she was definitely keeping an eye on it and would continue to do so. I thanked her for everything and then called and talked to mom about what Ruth had said. She agreed that it made sense to still have someone coming by once a week. And I think dad really would still like that, so I think we're all in agreement for now.

Today I put my college application in the mail. It's time to move forward with that. I mentioned it to mom and dad last night and they were so pleased.

I'm hoping next week to get back to my regular work-out schedule. I'm so very good of taking care of other people, but tend to neglect myself in the process and I'm feeling that neglect lately. I think this cold this week was my body's way of reminding me that in order to take care of everyone else, I have to take care of myself too.

It sounds like I'll likely be birthing this weekend, so hopefully come Monday, we'll all be feeling better and maybe can enjoy some of our lovely weather and I can get in a little self-care too. We'll see how that goes...every week seems to hold something new these days. A little boring, now and then, really isn't so bad.