Stress

I'm alive.  This fall has been extremely busy, with more than a little stress.  Some of the highlights:

Daughter continues to struggle.  The medication is not right, and the side effects are such that we're going to have to change it.  She had an appointment for this month, but it has been cancelled and rescheduled for February.  Our mental health system is broken.  This state significantly cut support for mental health this year.  I just read an article about how the local mental health service is cutting people off because they don't have the funding to treat them.  People with serious mental illness, in a community where there was recently a high profile murder by someone who had serious mental illness. 

One of the residents in Daughter's house has developed mental health issues and had some issues with violence.  They tried to hospitalize her but there wasn't a hospital in the state that would take her.  She has been creating problems at the house, and after she became violent with a staff member, there was a staff change.  All of this has triggered Daughter's PTSD.  She has been wetting the bed, something she hadn't done since she moved out.  She is begging me to bring her home.  She is desperate to get out of the house.  I think her case manager is planning to move the woman who is causing the problems out. 

The psychologist she's been seeing sent an email a couple of weeks ago saying that since Daughter is stable, she thought she'd close her case.  Case Manager and I were not happy, since there  is no way you can describe Daughter as stable right now.  I have requested a different psychologist to work with her, but given all the budget cuts, I'm not optimistic. 

The arm is now broken in two places.  The ulna has healed, but I broke the radius near the elbow when I fell on vacation.  For 8 weeks I thought it was tennis elbow, but the most recent x-rays show  the fracture.  The doctor told me they treat fractures like this with a sling for a couple of weeks.  He didn't do anything for it t this point.  Last week I shook a bell during bell choir, and the next day was in a lot of pain.  I believe that the bones are moving.  I scheduled an appointment for this coming Wednesday.  I'm hoping there is a brace that will work.  I really don't want a cast, and I'm not willing to have another surgery on it.  I'm really frustrated.  It's been well over 2 years since I originally broke it. 

The Church has been blessed with good health the past few years.  That has ended.  I've had a number of funerals, and we have had a number of people dealing with joint replacements or cancer (and in one case, both).  I have 2 people who have struggled hip dislocations following joint replacement.  Both have had multiple surgeries, including one who has 3 in the last 6 weeks.  He's also been diagnosed with cancer.

We've had a lot of people traveling this fall, making it hard to get volunteers to work concessions at the local university football games.  It takes over 20 people to fully staff the booth.  I've worked as a cashier twice.  Last week Administrative Assistant and I were both working.  In fact, we went together.  Right before halftime, she passed out.  Her coworker got her into the storage shed after she said she was feeling funny.  The paramedics arrived, blocking our access to our supplies.  We had to get ice from another stand.  AA husband is one of the managers, so he accompanied her to the hospital, leaving us down two key staff members.  We got through it, and it was challenging.  After the game, I went up to the hospital.  The couldn't find the cause of her problem, but they kept her overnight and did a stress test the next day.  After they moved her to the floor, I took her husband to pick up their car from the university.  She passed her stress test with flying colors.  I told her it was a pretty dramatic way to get out of being drafted to work in the booth.  Daughter was not happy with me working concessions, because it meant I didn't pick her up until Saturday evening.

Computer has been replaced.  I was having a growing number of problems with the old one, and decided I was flirting with disaster.  So, I bought a new computer.  Then the power  button stopped working after 2 weeks.  I took it in and they replaced the computer.  I tried to hook it up to an external monitor without success.  The retired head of IT at a major company here in town spent 5 hours over 2 days trying to figure it out.  He finally took it in.  I told him he was vindicated because they had trouble figuring it out, too.  He said they had access to resources he didn't, and finally figured out it was  a driver issue. 

Family Time this weekend is focused on Daughter and getting caught up on stuff at home.  We had our annual eye exams this morning, so she spent the night last night.  We then spent most of the day running taking care of various things.  Daughter is obsessed with escaping her pain, so she wants to leave her program and her house.  It is exhausting to deal with her right now.  We have her annual planning meeting on Monday, and she is super stressed over that.  I finally reminded her that I would be there and that Mama Bear would look out for her.  I could see her relax.  She wants to find Mama Bear and Baby Bear shirts for us to wear.  I hope once we get through the appointment she will calm down.