Leveling Off

The last few days I have been much less anxious about Mother. Good thing too since work has been hard this week. Not bad, just hard. It's really strange since training analyst is gone for week #2, sous-analyst is on vacation, my esteemed colleague to the east (aka Mecte) is off at a conference, and one secretary decided this was a great time to be sick. That leaves only me and our secretary, who is manning three phones and the schedules of five shrinks. She's maintaining her sanity quite admirably. We have heard very little from the boss man so I guess he trusts us to keep the ship afloat until everyone returns. But it's way too quiet in the building.

Mother has perked up a lot in the past two days. She's been sitting in a chair for longer periods She has lost a great deal of weight and strength. Her downward spiral has stopped and her status is evening out, albeit at a lower level of functioning. This is allowing me to breathe deeper. I am no longer jumping every time the phone rings. There is, however, a new twist to this saga. The hospital radiologist sent Mother's MRI off for a second opinion and that opinion is she has an extruded disc fragment. This is unrelated to her first back surgery and is believed to be the cause of her severe pain. Hubster sent her MRI to a back surgeon for his opinion. Oh boy! Another wrinkle in the plot. My mind began to race as I considered the logistics of surgery not to mention the risks. At this point, mother's health has had so many ups and down, twists, and switchbacks that I'm refusing to waste anymore mental energy obsessing about the "what-ifs". So if today is the day, I read to her and then tomorrow may be the day I round up something she needs. To think farther ahead is counterproductive and definitely not fun. After all, who ever obsessed about fun stuff?

Meanwhile I"m back to thinking about selecting some new wallpaper and that's definitely more enjoyable. I may just take off someplace out of town to do so. My, that's sounding awfully nice even if just for part of the day. Perhaps Monday....