A step in the right direction

The past two months have been hard on us.  Who am I kidding – the past two years have been hard!  My mom has been through the ringer and come out the other side only to be knocked down again by shingles and then bronchitis.  Let me tell you – Shingles is no joke.  If you are 60+ and are able to do so, please, please, PLEASE get the Singles Vaccination!  I didn’t know much about shingles before this, but watching my mom be in such pain has been so difficult.  There is little we can do to help her.  We try to use the kids as a distraction and help her focus on other stuff.  We’ve gotten her a variety of different things that could possibly ease the pain, but these have been mostly ineffective.  We’ve tried to be there to support her as best we can, but we all feel helpless. 

I took the picture below on Christmas Eve.  Evelyn just wanted to sit near Kiki...

I called her after work on Wednesday, two months to the day since she was diagnosed with shingles.  She answered the phone soundly more happy and upbeat than she had in a while.  Holly and Asa were visiting so I thought maybe Asa was working her baby magic. 😊  But then my mom said she had gotten out of the house that day.  She went to breakfast with Holly and did a little furniture shopping.  It was the first time she had really been out of the house since Dec. for anything other than a doctor’s appt..  She sounded so happy and I was thrilled.  She said that she’s still in pain, but she just decided enough was enough.  She was going to have to find a way to function around the pain because she wants to live her life.  She talked about making dinner for my dad’s birthday over the weekend and celebrating Avi and Cal’s birthday the following weekend.   She is finally looking forward to stuff again and it felt like a weight was lifted.

Her struggle isn’t over and there will be good days and bad days.  But yesterday was a good day and step in the right direction.  My mom is the strongest person that I know.  If anyone had a reason to be mean and miserable, it would be her after everything she’s been though.  But she doesn’t want to be that way.  She wants to be happy.