Thank you all for your encouragement and thoughts–it’s nice to know I’ve been missed. When I was out of work for several months due to an illness (about 10 years ago), I was convinced everyone would find my absence unbearable. It was humbling to discover most people didn’t know I was gone. I’m not much, ya’ know, but I’m all I think about … it is, after all, all about me…
Anyway, I plan to resume blogging–hopefully fairly soon. But there’s quite a bit on my plate at the moment: my mother-in-law, who has been a healthy, independent 87-year-old, had her second fall in 6 months, was hospitalized for a week (while we were gone), and is now in a nursing home with intractable pain, and her long-term disposition is very much up in the air; my daughter just had back surgery and is staying with us while she recovers; my wife’s got the flu; my buddy Ben, our 6-month old standard poodle, has been sick with diarrhea and vomiting for 4 days, and had to be hospitalized for dehydration; and there’s still some unsettled issues at work, as I change accounting software, revisit priorities and schedules, and get some lingering retirement plan issues resolved at long last. So blogging by necessity may be a bit short and sporadic in the near term.
In the meantime, thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and be sure to visit some of the great sites on my blogroll. Back soon, God bless.
Dr. Bob … that’s an awful laundry list of hassles in your life right now. I’m really sorry that you had to come home to such upheaval.
Hang in there …
You’re in our thoughts!
I know the feeling.
It flows downhill, but, they say, it helps make the flowers grow.
Hang in there.
You know you have my prayers!
We cared for my m-i-l for several years, before she died 2-1/2 years ago at 93. My mom will be 89, next month, and she is–so far–doing better than many of the same age. But we know that can change overnight, as has happened in your family.
You do have a lot of plates to balance on sticks, as it were, and the return to work is not the least of them. Burnout is a tricky animal; if you’ve returned to the same situation with no known concrete changes in the works, you will be in the same place, all too soon. You probably knew that, already, but I tho’t I’d mention it.
It may not seem real, that people you’ve never met except through blogging should really care about *you*, and not only your commentary. But don’t discount the impact you have had on us. (I realize you may know, personally, most of your commenters, so apply this as is appropriate.) Take care of yourself as best you can, while caring for several other people close to you.
Going through similar types of lifestyle changes with my own Mom, soon to be 82.
God bless!
Welcome back. I have your blog bookmarked, but hadn’t checked in lately. I did, though, when you were away, and spent some time reading your posts about loss, and I do so appreciate all that you’ve had to say.