This week has had several disappointments. On Thursday and Friday, I was scheduled to take a course in Critical Incident Stress Management for my job. I was really looking forward to it, not only for the new information and skills but also for the opportunity to be back with coworkers and others for the day. I got up at 5 a.m. and got Lynn and myself ready for the day. I had a friend coming to stay with him from 9-2:30. All was going well at first, and then his stomach started grumbling. Not a good sign. I went on to the class, hoping it would settle down. At 3:40, I got a call to come home. That was the end of my two-day training program. Friday, I could not go in at all. Disappointing but a necessity. At least I got the training manual.
Saturday, my nephew was getting married in Northern Virginia. For me, that’s a 2 1/2-hour drive at a minimum. My daughter was supposed to go with me, but she has not been feeling well all week, so it was decided that instead, she and her husband would stay with Lynn till his son could come to help out when he got off work. As you recall from above, Friday was not a good day for Lynn. Since he had stayed up from 5:00 a.m. till I got home around 4:30 on Thursday, he had over-extended and in addition to the upset stomach, was exhausted on Friday. My ride for the wedding (I didn’t want to drive alone that far due to sleep deprivation’s impact on my alertness..i.e., I get sleepy when I drive) called to make final arrangements, and it was then that I realized just how long I would have to be gone. They were going to pick me up at 10:00 a.m., and I would probably not get back till midnight. The truth hit me then like a ton of bricks…I couldn’t go. I would be gone much longer than Thursday. Lynn’s stomach was still not totally straight. I didn’t think my daughter and her husband could get him into bed, and his son could not come by till around 6:00 pm. That would be too long without a nap. I couldn’t go.
I was very disappointed, and I felt guilty. My brother and his wife had bought me a suit as a gift so I could have something new to wear to the wedding; I had my parents cancel their reservation for Saturday night for accommodations since they were driving back with me after the reception, so now they had no place to stay, and I’m big on family participation, and here I was missing a major family event. On the other hand, Lynn is my responsibility. I have to make sure his needs are met because if they aren’t, a setback could occur, which could mean the loss of the progress he has made or, worse yet, another hospitalization. I couldn’t take that risk. If I hadn’t already had issues on Thursday, maybe it would have worked out, but now, it was too risky.
I cried a bit and started calling to find my parents another hotel to stay in since the one they were in on Friday was booked for Saturday. I called my brothers to let one know I would not be riding with him, and the other knew that I had made reservations at another hotel for our parents because I could not come now. (he had already heard about the problem and had made reservations for them himself, so I canceled mine.) The new hotel was beside the one the rest of the family was staying in, so it all worked out well. I called and canceled my daughter’s help and let Lynn’s son know he wasn’t needed and could now attend the party he had needed to cancel participation in so he could stay with his Dad. It all worked out but it was disappointing nonetheless to give up a special family time. I’ll live it through pictures and stories but it would have been nice to see it for real.
Guilt again on Saturday night when I got a call from my niece that my mother was on the way to the emergency room due to a fall. She had hit her back hard when she fell and was having trouble moving. My first thought was that I should have been there to ensure she was okay. I called my brother, who was following her to the hospital, to say what needed to be considered if she was discharged so she could travel back today and what to do if she was admitted. I have contacts at the hospital where I work that could help me get her transferred back to Richmond if she needed to be in the hospital so we could help out and Dad would have a place to stay. Fortunately, that wasn’t needed. She had no broken bones and was released with pain meds and muscle relaxants. She and Dad will be coming here shortly and will stay with us tonight and longer if needed for her recovery.
So anyway, all worked out but I share this to say that as a caregiver, your life is not your own, and making plans is only a tentative thing…you can never really plan. Anything can get in the way and throw a major kink into the works. But it usually works out. I got to sleep in yesterday, so I was more rested. I always have about three hours of work to do for my job on the weekends so I got that done yesterday and will be able to visit without guilt when my parents and brothers get here shortly…and Lynn is feeling better. He was able to get the rest he needed. His stomach has settled down, and he’s not feeling so exhausted. So it’s all good. It’s just a different good than I had been planning, but it’s still good.
