There are some personal things I don't really talk about online and it's generally stuff that makes me emotional. I've been very absent lately, and the reason why falls into that category, but I'll explain why anyway.
Some of you know me from another website, which I mostly disappeared from at the end of 2013. My departure was largely the result of a family crisis. My mom, who lived across the country, had a stroke. I spent several months traveling between my home in AZ and her bedside. At first, they didn't expect her to survive. Then, the prognosis was that she'd pretty much be a vegetable. As time passed, she started to come out of it more and more.
She's still disabled. Cognitively, she comes and goes. She has little use of her left side and cannot perform self-care on her own, nor can she get in/out of bed, stand, walk, or do any of the things most of us take for granted. She has also been in a facility ever since her stoke, with very little interaction from the outside world. Her most recent facility wasn't taking good care of her and, as a result, she was hospitalized several times in December and January.
Perhaps some of you who know me well are going "Aha!" It's probably no surprise to you that I made the arrangements and brought her home with me near the end of February. In some ways, it was an utterly foolish thing to do. I already work 60 hour weeks from home and I'm a single mom of three. Time was already an issue, and my mom requires around-the-clock care.
I'm not sure what the future holds- whether I'll be able to keep up with this long-term, or whether she'll develop more skills that will enable me to care for her more easily, but this is where we're at for now. The situation won't change overnight regardless, and I will probably be an infrequent flyer here on the Mug for a bit. I'm still here-ish, though, and I'm glad you guys are too. :)
