What's everyone up to right now?

[Angrboda]

Drinking coffee, eating coconut fudge cookies, and listening to Elvis Presley's Christmas album.

[Clueless Morgan]

Placing bets with myself on how many of my coworkers will come to work dressed up today.

So far, just me.

[brewer]

Went to the market this morning, almost all the employees were in halloweener dress.

None of them looked happy.

[Rev. Rye]

Breaking character from my day-long Hunter S. Thompson cosplay to thank you all for bearing with me long enough for me to have 5000 posts here.

[Clueless Morgan]

Where ya been CM?
The cat's behavin'?

Went to the market this morning, almost all the employees were in halloweener dress.

None of them looked happy.

I'm very happy.

I'm also the only one dressed up so far.

My coworkers are fuddy-duddies.

[Jackalope]

I thought I'd post an update over what's been going on over the last three weeks.

Dad's still in the hospital. As he has no recollection of it, how he got a subdural hematoma is a bit of a mystery. The docs thought it might be due to being on Coumadin for his ventricular afib. There's now a second explanation - on more than one occasion, his heart has stopped for ~5 seconds during his stay in the hospital. This can cause dizziness and fainting, and could have led to a head-injuring fall. He is having a pacemaker installed today. Once he's discharged, he is going into respite care for 2-4 weeks and we'll re-evaluate at this point. What was originally termed dementia has been reclassified as delerium which may resolve itself. However, in the interim, his memory and cognitive function is very impaired. He doesn't know why he's there, and we have had to remind him that his wife died years ago when he asks when she will come visit. Heartbreaking. He doesn't remember putting his elderly dog down on the 11th. He insists that she just died naturally, but we have spoken to the vet, and it was time for her to go and was euthanized. We got involved when he spoke to my sister two days later and said he couldn't find his dog. He didn't remember she was gone.

Two days later I had to call for a welfare check. The police found him on the floor unable to get up. They may have mistaken his delirium for drunkenness, though it's possible he was drunk (he's an alcoholic). It took a great deal of coaxing to get him to agree to come back to Vancouver (not the Canadian one, eh). We couldn't find an in-network primary care doc covered by his Medicare plan in our area, and had little recourse but to take him to the ER/A&E. He's been a patient there ever since, and it has been an enormous struggle to convince him that a) he cannot live by himself, and therefore cannot return to his home at the coast, b) he needs to go into assisted respite care, at least temporarily (it will likely not be). We're afraid that he might forget he agreed or that he might get stubborn again and change his mind. He's always been a stubborn fuck, and delusions and amnesia don't help.

On the 22nd, I learned that the company I've worked for the last 19 years is being sold to a much larger publicly-traded company. On the one hand, there exists a great deal of uncertainty over everyone's future employment, we have received assurances that our new parent company wants us to continue business as usual, for what it's worth. I'm a shareholder and am profiting a good amount on the sale. Finally. Despite the positive aspects this is a highly stressful time.

On the 24th, my wife was hospitalized. She is still there, it's uncertain when she will be discharged. The details are at this time a private matter, however I can say there is probably some third-party liability in the matter and we are considering legal action.

As you can imagine, this has been an extraordinarily stressful time for me. Stress aggravates my own medical condition and mental health and my primary support person is my wife. I haven't been taking care of myself very well and I know that I need to. Part of that is focusing my energy on what's in front of me rather than the forum and social media.

[brewer]

@CD, sorry to hear all of this. Seems that you're in a shit storm. 

Are you working FT and dealing with all this? Maybe taking some FMLA is in order. You need to take care of yourself also, you crashing will not help.

[Angrboda]

I'm sorry to hear about all the bad things you are going through in your life right now, CD. How you're able to cope and remain functional is amazing. I would be a total wreck. You are a very strong person, and while your troubles may seem insurmountable now, you appear to have the strength to get through them. I know that probably doesn't make things any better, but at least it's something. I can only hope that these things resolve themselves for you sooner rather than later.

In my more ordinary life, I just finished my latest reply to an argument from Huggy. Yay me! Developing the motivation to reply can sometimes be a challenge. Fortunately I think we're nearing the end of our discussion so I can then turn my attention to more pleasing diversions.

[The Valkyrie]

Sorry to hear what you're going through, CD.

You take care of yourself, too.

[Jackalope]

@CD, sorry to hear all of this. Seems that you're in a shit storm. 

Are you working FT and dealing with all this? Maybe taking some FMLA is in order. You need to take care of yourself also, you crashing will not help.

Thanks. I'm working abbreviated days. I considered taking some FMLA I can't really afford to take any unpaid time off at this point. You are correct though, I can't keep this up indefinitely, my mental health is already suffering.