Sometimes I Feel Like a Piece of Bologna

More Health Problems

Breathing. What a month! Last week I went to Mom’s for yet another round of medical appointments. Four in three days. Most of them went well, but she had biopsies on four potential skin cancers. All turned out to be positive. Now I’m trying to schedule three surgeries to remove the four cancers. Fortunately, the cancers are not serious, although one of the surgeries promises to be a challenge. We can schedule the appointments over six to eight weeks.

When I’m hit with such diagnoses, I find myself feeling smooshed again. In addi-tion to the normal concern for Mom, I confess panic at the thought of trying to schedule more than my monthly trips to her home four hours away. A trip now takes at least four days, including travel. I have class every other Saturday this quarter and am still staggering under the graduate workload. I’m also trying to work, but find that harder every week. I’m so thankful that I’m self-employed so I can determine my workload to a greater extent than if I were working for someone else. But I also find that when I’m at Mom’s I don’t multi-task well, so I always fall behind.

I talked to my brother tonight. He’ll handle the weekends following the surger-ies. Hopefully my sister can help. But once again, the responsibility for planning, scheduling, and much of the care falls to my hubby and I. I’m so grateful that I can serve in this way, but I confess. I feel smooshed. Any ideas on long distance care giving would be appreciated!

Labels: medical care, sandwich generation