Life comes in seasons. Some seasons are easy. Some feel like repeats. Then there are seasons of life where you are like “yeeeaaaa, that’s enough now”.
My mom’s knee replacement felt like one of those seasons…. I mean, the knee replacement season definitely had a very long and drawn out opener.
A little more than a month ago my mom had a total knee replacement. The surgery itself was fine. But what was supposed to be a straightforward and easy surgery with only a single overnight to make sure she could get one round of PT in turned into a much longer stay than anyone expected.
Suddenly, our already chock-full schedule had something else added to it…and it sounds horrible to say it, but we didn’t have the time to get the boys to their activities and for me to get up there and visit/check on her in person. With my new school dismissal time, I wouldn’t even be able to make it to her before visitation ended.
Mom ended up needing to stay in the hospital longer than planned, over a week actually. Mainly because there were issues with pain medication and pretty strong reactions that made things more complicated.
So instead of the neat little timeline of:
Surgery → recover → go home → everything returns to normal
we got:
Surgery → hospital → medication problems → more hospital → figuring out what needs to change → finally find a good mix → go home → everything returns to normal
And while the second scenario was playing out, life was still happening too.
Meanwhile, Back at Home…
Ryan was still working his normal schedule. School started. Soccer for Big jumped up from one day a week to two, and late practice hours. Soccer for Little started pretty much right after school was done. We had just enough time to get home, get changed, and get to the field without being super late.
Soccer still happens. Practices still happen. Games still happen. BJJ still happens. Homework still exists. School still exists.
Normal life. Except it wasn’t entirely normal, because my mom was still in the hospital.
And Then There Was Work
I also still had to go to work. It was the very beginning of the year. They are third graders. Setting beginning of the year routines and expectations doesn’t get put on hold because my life outside of school is chaotic.
And Now…
The really important part is that Mom is out of the hospital, staying at my sister’s house (mostly), and is doing well. She’s recovering and getting stronger. She even started driving the other day.
And even though there is still a long road of recovery with PT appointments and follow ups, we’re past the scary part where nobody knew what the next day was going to look like.
Things are settling back down… well, as much as things can settle down over here. Because you can plan out everything. Have it all on the shared Google calendar, but life is going to drop something completely unexpected and big right into the middle of it.
So what do you do? You rearrange. You adjust. You make more trips. You make unexpected trips. You ask for help. And eventually, you stop to look around and realize that we made it through it.
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Swimming, swimming. Just keep swimming.
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