News and Updates:

Greetings to all!

I seem to be making a habit of this, and for that I apologize. I honestly meant to be updating more often than what seems like once a year.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, or so the saying goes. Despite all my good intentions for writing and other stuff, this year has had its challenges. Again, some personal issues, and some related to real-life issues.

First, the server was experiencing some issues. Namely, Doc Raven had to move the garage a couple of times, and that unfortunately led to some downtime. Doc was pretty good about getting things back up and running as soon as he could, though. So, we're back! Thanks Doc! :)

It's been nearly one year exactly now that I've been looking for full-time employment, and that has, of course, added to some of the frustrations I've been dealing with. Right now, there just doesn't seem to be anything in the I.T. field that I'm qualified to apply for. I suppose partly it's my fault for not putting in extra work over the last few years to try and keep my skills more up-to-date, but when you're stuck in a soul-killing job and trying to keep from going insane, my time outside of work became my time to relax and try to keep from snapping. That particular part I succeeded in doing.

Since getting laid off, I've been keeping up my exercise regimen - weights three times a week, and some cardio in between - and the happy result of that is that my weight's down to 220 lbs, and I feel pretty darned good. Working out has been one very important stress outlet. You can deal with things much better when you're fit. :)

Given my interest in fitness, earlier this year I acheived CanFit Pro certification as a personal trainer specialist, and I'm now working part time for the Town of Oakville as a personal trainer. Given some of my experiences with friends and family over the last few years, I very firmly believe being active and healthy is extremely important.

I've also been continuing to work part-time for the local municipality where I live, teaching karate classes two times a week. It's a little bit of income, and it gets me out and exposed to people. :) (As opposed to holing up indoors on the computer and not getting any person-to-person interaction. It's not hard to do. I've been there. =P )

The first quarter of this year was a very trying time for me, on both personal and emotional levels.

As a great many folks know from some of my previous posts, I have had the responsibility of caring for my Aunt, Edna Crawford, for the last few years and for managing her affairs. In 2006, she had to retire to a long-term care facility because she was no longer able to live independently. This was not an easy decision to make, and even less easy to implement. We went through some rough times in getting my aunt settled, both physically and emotionally. A good part of this was in finally diagnosing what exactly her health challenges were. As it turned out, some minor strokes were one of the complicating factors in her health - her balance had never been great before, and the strokes didn't help. As a result, she had experienced several falls prior to her entering the nursing home, and she had several falls after entering the nursing home.

As I'm sure anyone who's had to deal with aging relatives can tell you, this is not a good situation. Seniors especially can be seriously injured if they fall. It's especially bad if they break a hip - not only does this immobilize them, but it can lead to other complications. :( .

Over the last three years, I've really begun to dread either late night or early morning phone calls. It's almost always bad news - either somebody's calling to report that a friend or relative has died, or that they've injured themselves. For pretty much the last two years, it had always been the nursing home calling to tell me that my aunt had fallen in the nursing home. She had bounced back from a broken arm, and even a fractured neck vertebra, much to the surprise of the doctors involved. This time, however, when I got the phone call on February 5th, 2010, it was to report that my aunt had fallen and broken her hip.

I met the ambulance at the hospital, and spent the morning in the Emergency Ward with my aunt. I discussed her situation with the doctor, as I had the Power of Attorney for her care. The doctor's explanation was that at my aunt's age and frailty (she was 99 at the time), operating to fix her hip *might* kill her, but to leave it untreated *would* kill her. While I didn't wish to subject my aunt to unnecessary operations, I also wanted to spare her as much pain as possible. If the operation would at least let her rest without pain, then I felt it was a good idea to proceed. I gave the doctor the go-ahead, and signed the paperwork.

The first opportunity to operate was the following morning, and the operation went extremely well. The doctor told me that for a 99 year-old patient, my aunt's bones were in very good condition. Even though she was still unconscious and didn't know I was there, I spent a couple hours sitting with my aunt after the operation before going home, cautiously optimistic that she'd bounce back from this misfortune as well.

For the next eight days, I walked every morning over to the hospital to visit her for a couple of hours, taking over flowers (anything pink was her favourite) and just sitting with her. For about the first four days, she seemed to be rallying well, and getting stronger. Then she started to decline, and I feared for the worst.

I suppose one of the factors was that, in a hospital, it's VERY hard to really get any sleep. The lights are almost always on (even when you turn your room lights off, everything's always on in the hallways), and in my aunt's case, the nurses came in every hour on the hour to take her temperature, or sometimes take a blood sample. Edna began demanding that everyone just leave her alone and let her sleep, and started refusing medications, and food, in some instances. Her breathing began to deteriorate, and I was afraid that she was going to succumb to complications developed while she was unable to move. (Pneumonia is the most common problem that folks get after becoming bedridden from a broken hip, and she just didn't have the strength to deal with a bout of pneumonia.)

I discussed things with the doctor on staff, and I finally pushed for having her transferred back to the nursing home once she was stable and could at least rest comfortably. My premise was that she'd be able to rest much more comfortably in an environment surrounded by people she knew, as well as her stuff. More importantly, she'd get to see her cat, Rusty, again. On February 15th, they transferred her back to the nursing home.

I continued visiting my aunt over the next two days, spending several hours with her, trying to help make her as comfortable as possible. She seemed to be happy to be back at the nursing home, and I know that Rusty was happy to have her back - he was by her bed every time I was there. The nurses there were great, and even managed to get her to take all her medications. She even seemed to be improving a little when I visited her for the last time on Tuesday, February 16th.

Then came the phone call I'd been half-expecting, but dreading just the same. At 3:20 AM on Wednesday, February 17th, Edna Crawford, beloved friend and aunt, passed away. She would've been 100 years young in July.

It took me a long time after that to even begin functioning close to "normal"; I'm not really 100% sure I am completely back to "normal", emotionally speaking. The funeral was held the following week, with everything arranged according to my aunt's wishes as laid out in her will, and I spent the next few weeks trying to deal with everything as best as I could. (My parents and my sister were a great help at this time; I'd probably have snapped trying to deal with it all myself.)

Between getting all the paperwork in order, moving her furniture out of the nursing home (you get 48 hours to clear the room - waiting lists for long-term care in Ontario are pretty long, and the need for the room is urgent) getting the estate taken care of, phone calls to the government to get the proper authorities notified, and then tax stuff on top of that, I don't really recall much of what happened between mid-February and mid-April. April was really when I started to think semi-coherently for myself again; I'd kept up the karate teaching and working out during this period - that was probably what kept me from completely succumbing to depression. May to June were spent trying to get my head back on straight, and July up to now has been a continuation of that process, including trying to look for work again. Overall though, I'm hoping things will quiet down for the forseeable future. This year has had quite enough 'interesting' events, thanks. :P

There's probably more to report, but that's all I think I'll expound upon for now. If you're reading this update, thanks for sticking with me. I hope to reward your patience sometime soon. :)

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