The first apology is to my sister, because I’m not sure I’ll have had a chance to call and tell you about this before it posts, and I know you prefer not to have the blog be the first place you find out about things :-).
The second apology is to every blog in my Google Reader, where I’ve already hit the “mark all as read” button twice in two days, and may need to do it again. I have a relatively low threshold for unread posts, and when they get up over 500, I throw in the towel. I’m sorry to be missing your great posts! Hopefully, one way or another, I’ll catch up on some of them via visiting your blogs directly or through other blogs’ links.
The third apology is to all of you who read here for some gaps in content you may be seeing over the next couple of weeks; there may be a day skipped here and there, and more reliance on memes than usual. I’m not sure how much of the commentary and essays that you sometimes (occasionally?) find here will make an appearance – my opportunities for unprompted writing may be limited. (Then again, maybe you won’t even miss them!) On the other hand, I’ve had an unexpected windfall in time for book-reading, so I may actually get a little bit ahead on reviews here!
Anyway, here’s my excuse/reason for all the disclaimers:
My stepchildren spent the week leading up to the Fourth of July at my mother-in-law’s place, a couple of hours’ drive south from where we live. Tall Paul and I drove down there on July 3 to spend the weekend, and planned to drive back with the kids on the 5th. Mom-in-law has been suffering from occasional shortness of breath and dizziness lately, but she had several serious attacks of vertigo on Saturday – serious enough to warrant a 911 call and a trip to the ER for the 4th of July. As I write this on Monday, she is expected to be in the hospital for at least another day, as they continue to run tests and, we hope, get closer to a diagnosis and some sort of treatment plan. Right now, some sort of inner-ear problem is the most likely suspect – nothing life-threatening, but potentially fairly serious unless it’s managed properly.
Tall Paul took the kids back to their mom’s house on Monday morning, and I stayed at Mom-in-law’s – he’s driving back down later on. It looks pretty likely that she’ll need some in-home assistance when she is discharged from the hospital, so we’re staying a little longer to get things in place around the house, make sure we’re fully informed about the medical details, and assist with the arrangements for her return. It’s challenging to handle these things from 150 miles away, so we’re all very lucky that she has some very good friends and neighbors nearby who are happy to help out as they can. Chances are we’ll be making more frequent visits to northern San Diego County from now on, though, and I think we’ll all be going through some changes as a result of this episode.
My mother-in-law is one of the most giving, fun-loving, open-hearted people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I was very happy to become an official part of her family almost three years ago. I’ve mentioned her here before – most recently because of her gift of a Kindle, and she’s making my upcoming trip to BlogHer’09 possible too. I may be mentioning her more often as we adapt to whatever comes out of all this.
This has ended up being not quite as “brief” as I expected, but since we all know I suffer from chronic long-windedness, I guess no one – least of all me – should be surprised about that.
No worries on the blogging front – take care of your family and we'll all still be here when you are able to check in.
My best wishes that your MIL recovers quickly and fully!
I hope everything turns out well. I've suffered several pretty bad bouts of vertigo and let me tell you, it is rough! Your family is far more important than your blog, even though we do love your blog. Please keep us up to date.
I wll be sending up good strong thoughts for ALL of you!
I'm thinking of you and your family right now! A MIL is a great person to have around (I know, mine's pretty awesome) so I'll be sending some "get-well" vibes her way!
Just wanted to say that y'all are the BEST! Thanks so much for your support. I already had posts ready for most of this week, so gaps may not show up till later in the month.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Tall Paul and I are back home (back to work tomorrow), and Mom-in-law is being released from the hospital. She will have 24-hour at-home assistance for the next little while – we're not sure how long – and is walking better, with help. The dizziness isn't completely gone, but it's diminished greatly. We got the house ready for her before we left. We have a possible diagnosis related to the inner ear, but I don't know if it's official. I will share more when I know more.
I see I'm a little late. Glad things seem to be going okay with your Mother-in-law. Hope she is up and running around very soon!
Vertigo is a NASTY thing to deal with, so here's hoping her inner ear settles down!
Mike – She's using a walker for the time being, and I don't know how soon she'll be driving. There will be some follow-up therapy, and she's got a couple of people to stay with her, for however long she needs them.
Jill (Softdrink) – It's definitely better than it was over the weekend, but now it's the questions of recurrence and possible prevention that concern us.
Just seen this – hope all is well. I have a friend who deals with vertigo too.
Sending good thoughts out to you and your family.
Thinking of you and knowing you are spending your time doing the precise right thing.
Again, thanks for all of your support, folks! No new updates as of Wednesday morning, but I will pass the info along as I get it.
Just seeing this now … sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. I know from your previous posts how close you are with her. I'm keeping her and your family in my thoughts and wishing all the best.
B&B's Mommy, and everyone else whether I've mentioned you by name or not – Thanks for your good wishes, and just for being there. I love being part of the blogiverse!