byrdie

Thank you for the hug. It was very odd: the guy has been on better behavior since the instructor had a talk with him ... and informed the brainiac that he wouldn't have been surprised if John had taken a swing at him. They've both been officially told to stay away from each other, but the unofficial decree is that John was completely in the right.

Oh, and my boyfriend pulled the 2nd highest grade on a recent test while brainiac barely got a D-.

I'll bet I can guess why your Mom doesn't want to go back and participate (and you sorta gave the clue). She is proud and doesn't think she's as bad off as those OTHER people in the program. If she goes, she'll be admitting or acknowledging that she is LIKE THEM.

That's possible. However, at least once she told me that she was discouraged by her progress with her voice exercises (everything else came back so quickly in comparison) and that she figured that the vocal part of her brain was simply damaged and that this was as good as it was going to get.

According to my niece, it's her memory center that's shot, her language center just needs work that she's not willing to put in. Neither is my mother willing to type, so getting her a TTY phone isn't an option.

So, it's possible that she goes back and forth between "I'm not that bad off" and "I'm doomed."

Honestly. Even if you try to tell your Mom the arrangement is NOT permanent, she may have doubts. I sure can't tell you how to work with that, especially when I had issues of stubbornness with my own family member. What I can say is it sounds like you and the remainder of the family have done a great job of formulating a workable care plan. That sounds great because no one person is doing everything. It gives you each time to rest and indulge in some self care.

Tonight involves downtime at home: possibly a DVD, pizza and microwave popcorn (bliss!). Tomorrow will be a movie with friends. Saturday will likely involve giving my first tarot reading in ages. I'll be spending next weekend with my boyfriend, and the weekend after that I'll be having tea with a friend for the first time in a long while. I plan to hit the Hot House Spa sometime soon (I haven't been since my birthday weekend).

So, I'm trying. It's just that time seems short enough that even treating myself looks daunting. I think the coming of Spring and the lengthening of the days may help that attitude, though.

Thank you for the support. It helps!

d'oh! Penny Dreadful! I completely forgot about that one. yowsa! Thanks for the reminder.

Thank you! We're actually starting to get to a point where we're working on pulling back a bit on Mom-duty, but nothing's been finalized yet. I'm going on vacation in mid-May, and expect -- given the timing of the planning -- that changes will be underway by then.

*crosses fingers*