My ADD is out of control this week. I have a list of the things I HAVE to get done this week but I just can't seem to get my focus together. I just feel that low frequency hum in my brain if that makes any sense. I did take a beta blocker in hopes that maybe at least it might help kind of calm me down a little so my what focus I do have isn't internal.
My mom is doing better. We went to a satellite location in the burbs and it was so much better than going to the main. If they thought it was an actual stroke I am sure they would have sent her to the main hospital but I really didn't think it was that serious based off of the FAST protocol. They did the CT and contrast CT. and decided it was a lingering ear infection and referred her to an ENT. She actually got in to see the PA on Tuesday. She had some was build up that they took care of and said that her, as she puts it, a dizzy headed problem was from the first stroke she had a few years ago and that she needed PT. We were in and out of the hospital in less than 5 hours. If we had gone to the main hospital we would have still been waiting in the waiting room. I used that to get out of going over to her house on Saturday.
I had a meeting with the local DVIS (domestic violence intervention service) yesterday to see about volunteering as an SA hospital advocate. The meeting was at 1:30 and I didn't get out of there until almost 3. It was a pretty good meeting in that I wasn't stressed or nervous at all. The lady I spoke to seemed pretty excited to have me there. Their volunteer crew is very slim post 'Rona so they are really trying to ramp back up. She asked me if I would be interested in being on the facilitator team and possibly the speakers board. I told her I would consider it based on what they provided since I am definitely not a professional. I would be working more on the SA side and less on the DV side, which is what I wanted. Even though I did the Army training there is still mandatory training through the AGs office, which I had figured. However, the CE credits from NOVA should carry over and I won't have to do a lot of double dipping for CE credits. I did get my certification approved and for $40 you can register to the civilian side as well as the military so I will be doing that. I have the email but I haven't received anything in the mail yet. At least I am not concerned there will be a fluke hit on a background check since I cleared the other one. Unfortunately they still have to run all of that again, but again, I expected that. I did tell them I would donate back the money it cost to run the check.
I don't remember if I mentioned my friend L's issues with her in-laws last week. Her husband's sister stole almost $200K from their mom in less than 6 months and some very diligent bank worker noticed it and turned it in. The sister, her common law husband and their 19 year old son all went to jail. The in-laws live here and my friend lives in the DFW area so they really didn't know it was going on. A neighbor called them and told them the police were there and they called around and found out. It is a huge mess. The mom has 3 houses, the one her, the sister, and her 13 year old daughter stayed in, a house across the street that the sister and her daughter had been living in until the mom had a stroke and needed full time care, and the grandmother's house that the 19 year old son was living in. They are all shit holes. The house they were living in is not really habitable. The mom slept in a recliner and the other two slept on air mattresses in what was the dining room and den. The ceiling in the bedrooms was falling in and the floor was falling in on the bathroom. I am not sure how they think they are going to use the defense that they used the money to take care of the mom when the house was in that kind of shape. Anyway, my friend has two boys, one that will start college in the fall and another that will be 16 soon. Most of my friends had kids later in life so she is my age and was ready to get them out of the house and take a job with a non-profit or something and live the good life. Well the 13 year old girl had no one to take her so they came in to talk to an attorney about guardianship and getting her moved to TX. The girl didn't want to go, L didn't want to take her and it was chaos. L ended up calling me Monday night as I was on my way to dance in full on panic attack mode. I met up with her and we talked until about midnight. I told her that giving custody of the kid to the state wan not something to be ashamed of and if that was the decision she went that was fine, her and her family needs to come first. She told me that while I was on my way the sister called from jail and her husband was talking to her. The kid was at a friends house and L said she just unleashed on her about how she had ruined everyone's lives and pretty much everything she thought about her and the situation. She wasn't on the phone with her but her husband said that instead of taking an ounce of ownership she just said that she was innocent and that L was being a bitch about it. Whatever she said lit a fire under sister and she used what little resources she had left to find other arrangements for the daughter to 'punish' them. When L found out she was so elated. The situation sucks. I know it isn't the kids fault but it isn't L's fault either and they have a 3 bedroom house with no room for another kid and the youngest boy was legit scared of what the sister might do to terrorize them while she was in jail and what would happen when she got out. The mother is being moved into a nursing home in DFW where they can watch out for her. I can't even imagine how stressed she was.
OK I really have to get something done. I am going to be in a meeting in Branson MO next week with BFF Brooke so I know I won't be working in my room after hours. If I can get the top three items off of my to do list this week I will be happy. Wish me luck.
That is a wild story about your friend's mother-in-law! My sister and I sometimes worry about my dad's vulnerability to scammers/thieves, but he no longer has any access to his own accounts, so I don't think anyone else could get it through him (here's hoping anyway). The only people who have access to him are the caregivers, and there are no credit cards or bank account info in the apartment. YIKES.
ReplyDeleteGlad your mom is feeling better!
When I did advocate training, it was a 40-hour course over five Saturdays just for advocates working with local police and the DA's office. No CE courses involved. But it is probably different for hospital advocates. IMO, you can't have too much training! Later, when I was partnered with other advocates, I noticed that 90 percent of them didn't seem to remember some of the main stuff we had been taught (such as active listening).