Spring "Break"?? I think not.

It has been a little while since I posted and I am on Spring Break this week. I HAD planned on spending my Spring Break resting, relaxing, and looking for great ways to integrate the new smart board I just got in my classroom. Well that all went down the drain almost exactly 2 weeks ago (1 week before Spring Break started). 2 weeks ago my sweet 79 year old Daddy (who suffers from Alzheimer's and dementia) fell down the stairs at his house and broke his hip. He was rushed to the hospital and had to have emergency surgery to replace the ball part of the hip and repair the break which was just under the ball. My daddy lives an hour away from me and the hospital is an hour and a half away but it didn't matter I was going to be there as much as I could. My dad stayed at the hospital for a week before he was moved to rehabilitation nursing home to begin his rehab therapy. While in the hospital we began to notice that my dad was having trouble with simple skills like feeding himself and his hand eye coordination was terrible. Now his doctor believes he most likely had a mild stroke either at the time he fell, right before the fall, or right after. My dad has been in the nursing home rehab center for a week now and is making progress He has physical, occupational, and speech and cognition therapy daily.

My father's wife is 88 years old and she is unable to care for him, especially now, so the therapy team has deemed it unsafe for him to return home so I have spent my entire Spring Break either sitting with him (he hates to be alone) or touring nursing homes trying to find a place for him to live when his rehab is completed. This has been so hard because he is so confused about where he is and what is going on. When I go see him he always asks me to take him home. Next week is going to be even worse for me because I have been with him almost daily since this happened and I go back to work next week plus I start working on my 2nd Master's degree so I am only going to be able to see him once a week.

So, that is why I have been MIA. I have been living on stress overload, thank goodness I have my brother and sister as well. The great thing about her family is that at times like this we all pull together to get things done. My momma passed away 20 years ago and my daddy is all I have left. Even though Alzheimer's has stolen most of him away from us, I love him so much and I worry about him even more.