Ugh!

When I started blogging, I had a goal of trying to post something every day. Well, of course I haven't been blogging for very long and I don't want to break this little promise to myself so quickly, so post I will!

I'm tired. It's been a very long day. If you read my post yesterday, you know my parents were in an auto accident and are in the hospital. This morning I talked by telephone with my dad's doctor and the Social Services Discharge Planner. Both told me my dad was fine and was being discharged; I told them that my plan was to take him back to his home and check on him and bring him food every other day; the neighbors would also look in on him. That was just fine. Not so, as I discovered when I actually got to see him and found out he cannot care for himself and requires 24 hour care and/or supervision. Of course, this all comes down to healthcare assistance, insurance coverage, and finances, and it seems my parents fall into a category where they have just enough income to disqualify them for most assistance but don't have enough to pay for anything themselves. Yes, they have supplemental private insurance, but that's no help in this situation. Catch-22. In the end, the hospital kept my dad and will probably transfer him to a nursing care facility on Monday, but no one knows quite how this will be paid for. My mom isn't likely to face discharge for some time and will probably be sent to a nursing home as well before she goes home. I have to go back on Monday with all the financial documents I was able to hunt down at my parents' place. Their house was about 85 degrees inside. It was dark outside, and the lighting was poor inside. Nothing was precisely where my mom had said it would be. Did I mention that I'm tired?!

I know that trying to care for aging parents is a huge concern for my generation and yes, it's tough. I know that my husband and I are not the only ones to experience it. Yes, I know that, but it's not much comfort. It's hard to know what needs to be done when you're being asked to make decisions about something you've never really thought seriously about. I think eventually we'll have to sell my parents' place and move them into an apartment close to us, where we can help them and check on them regularly, and that's fine with me. Whether it will be equally fine with them is a question to be asked later.

What I'd really, really LIKE to be doing is quilting. I was hoping that by now, I'd be able to share a photo of my finished St. Patrick's Day tabletopper, but it's still half quilted, no further along than it was on Tuesday night--eons ago, it seems! Since both my parents are being cared for this weekend, I won't make that trip up there again until Monday. In the meantime, I need to read and sort through their financial and legal paper work and I hope to get some quilting time in as well. With quiting therapy, maybe by tomorrow's blog, my attitude will be better and I'll have a photo of something to share!