Happy Days
2008-04-09 - 7:09 p.m.
Things are great with me - I still love my job, I'm attending classes to become a certified pediatric oncology nurse and I am just having the time of my life. I worked nights for like freakin' ever - from mid-January until 2 weeks ago. Now, I'm back on days and LU-UVE it! Alas, I go back to nights next week - never fear kids... my transition back to nights will be far less dramatic than my transition to days was. So, I'll be a graveyard chick for four weeks and then, back to days again - but, I doubt I'll ever do 10 weeks in a row of nights again. Yeehaw! Although the pay WAS good...
So, my life rocks. I'm also losing some of my bad-ass weight. And, am getting back into working out.
My brother's life is kind of the bomb - he is doing well at his new job and loves his little internship where he goes and works for a recording studio and just hooks shit up and helps record local bands.
It's my mother's life that is literally going straight to hell. Here's why:
-My dad died on May 10th, 2007
-My aunt (her sister) started harassing (and I DO mean harassing - we thought about getting court orders and everything against that psycho!) her about moving my grandmother into a different assisted living facility. My aunt thought the one she was in was costing too much. My mom fought and fought and fought her on this - told her it would make my grandma go downhill even more - she'd totally forget what was going on because of the change in environment. Aunt D didn't believe her - was just worried about the fucking money. In November, my grandma went into the hospital for abdominal pain - had her galbladder taken out, was transferred to some nursing home that I wouldn't send my cat to to recover and get physical and occupational therapy - it wasn't her home. It wasn't the place to which she had become accustomed over the past five years. She regressed. Just like my mom said. She's been in and out of different nursing homes and the hospital since then. A total fucking mess. A year ago, she could walk and totally take care of herself. Now, the only thing she can do for herself is eat - can't get out of bed, can't remain continent, etc. But, it turns out that the current nursing home she is in can't take care of her any longer because her Alzheimer's is too bad - so, my mom has to move her again.
In October, my mom and Aunt D and my other aunt, Auntie K, got into a huge debacle about who would take care of my grandma's money. After much fighting, everything was very shittily turned over to my mom - except now we're finding out that Aunt D still has access to funds somehow and has stolen about $100,000 from my grandma. So, that's another thing my mom is trying to take care of - prosecuting her sister. Yeah. Fun times.
All of this kinda got put on hold though about six weeks ago when, out of the blue, my mom was placed on leave by her place of employment. They said that she was practicing unsafely as a nurse and they had to evaluate her. Said it would take two weeks. They evaluated her - made her sit through days of testing with their psychiatrist, made her get an MRI of her brain, etc. All because she gave one med 1/2 hour late and because, once, when she was floated to the ICU, she paid more attention to her patient who was crashing and barely laid eyes on her second patient. Uh, hello? So, the ICU peeps "reported" her to her boss on her floor - some new chick who's had it in for my mom since the day they met (just a few months ago). Are you still following?
Anyway, so my mom went through all these tests - cried for weeks. Two weeks turned into six. She feared she'd lose her job and her nursing license because that's what they were threatening her with. I told her that was ridiculous - that I knew of someone who has two felony drug convictions on her record (for calling in false narcotic prescriptions and sucking them down herself) and she only had her license SUSPENDED for 5 years. I told my mom time and time again not to worry. She'd be fine.
Yesterday, she found out she was not. They fired her and sent information to the board of nursing to revoke her license. My mom. After 22 years at that hospital. After 29 years of being a nurse. After losing her husband. After losing her two sisters because of some stupid argument about how to provide the best care for her ailing mother. And, after losing her mom to the crappy effects of late-stage Alzheimer's. All in eleven months. Hell, it's not even eleven months yet - not until tomorrow!
I see visits to a psych ward in my future. My mom is not talking to anyone and just told my brother that she wants to drive her car into a creek. Who can blame her? She's lost everything except for me and my brother. Everything. What the fuck?!?!
