When Life Intervenes
The best laid plans...well, I think you know the rest.
November was National Novel Writing Month and I decided to give it a shot: writing a 50,000-word novel in one month. And things went well, until my mother landed back in the hospital.
Her particular type of dementia is vascular, which means unlike Alzheimer's, it doesn't progressively get worse on its own. Unless she suffers another stroke, she will basically stay at the same level she's at now.
But periodically, about once or twice a year, she suffers a bit of a meltdown. We don't really know why. It could be her stress levels build up, it could be an intolerance to her medications, it could be a lot of things. But when it happens, it's very stressful for her, and it's very stressful for us, her family.
This time around, she developed a sudden anger toward her caregiver and my father, the two people who do the most for her. She was extremely aggravated, agitated, and angry. And when she first went to the hospital several weeks ago, that anger carried over to the hospital staff. It wasn't fun for any of them.
But here's the deal: I hate when my mother is in the hospital. I know there's no way to expect that people there will care for patients in the same manner that their families will, but what I've seen of hospitals in the time my mother has been ill has made me scared to death to ever land in one myself. So, I worry...the entire time she's hospitalized. And I deal with doctors who are too busy to call back, staff who are too busy or too indifferent to provide information, social workers who are so overloaded they can't even remember the name of the patient they are talking about -- even with the file right in front of them.
It's scary, and it's stressful.
So, what does all of this have to do with National Novel Writing Month? You guessed it. The novel didn't get written. I *did* get 15,000 words done, though, so that's something. And I'm quite pleased with what's there.
This past November will be remembered as another bad month in my mother's long journey with dementia, and the month where I *didn't* write that new book.
But, since Mom is doing better and will soon be discharged to go home, I'm not going to sweat the book.
There's always next November. :)
November was National Novel Writing Month and I decided to give it a shot: writing a 50,000-word novel in one month. And things went well, until my mother landed back in the hospital.
Her particular type of dementia is vascular, which means unlike Alzheimer's, it doesn't progressively get worse on its own. Unless she suffers another stroke, she will basically stay at the same level she's at now.
But periodically, about once or twice a year, she suffers a bit of a meltdown. We don't really know why. It could be her stress levels build up, it could be an intolerance to her medications, it could be a lot of things. But when it happens, it's very stressful for her, and it's very stressful for us, her family.
This time around, she developed a sudden anger toward her caregiver and my father, the two people who do the most for her. She was extremely aggravated, agitated, and angry. And when she first went to the hospital several weeks ago, that anger carried over to the hospital staff. It wasn't fun for any of them.
But here's the deal: I hate when my mother is in the hospital. I know there's no way to expect that people there will care for patients in the same manner that their families will, but what I've seen of hospitals in the time my mother has been ill has made me scared to death to ever land in one myself. So, I worry...the entire time she's hospitalized. And I deal with doctors who are too busy to call back, staff who are too busy or too indifferent to provide information, social workers who are so overloaded they can't even remember the name of the patient they are talking about -- even with the file right in front of them.
It's scary, and it's stressful.
So, what does all of this have to do with National Novel Writing Month? You guessed it. The novel didn't get written. I *did* get 15,000 words done, though, so that's something. And I'm quite pleased with what's there.
This past November will be remembered as another bad month in my mother's long journey with dementia, and the month where I *didn't* write that new book.
But, since Mom is doing better and will soon be discharged to go home, I'm not going to sweat the book.
There's always next November. :)
posted by CCW at 5:28 PM
0 comments
