Two Places at Once

I arrived in Upper late Monday night.  I knew that I would continue on my fast pace so I said my hellos at my dad's house and I went over next door to my aunt and uncles house to go to bed.  This is where I am staying this visit. The next morning I thought I was superwoman.  My uncle Tom kept calling my Becky, my aunts name, because I guess I am like her in a lot of ways.  Being superwoman is one of those ways.  I thought I could go between the two houses and help take care of my Grandma and Melody.  Well, as is stated in the previous sentence "I thought I could take care of both."  I was over more helping my grandma more than over with Melody.  My grandma has a newly broken upper arm and is 83 years old so she needed a lot attention.  My uncle and I took my grandma to a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon.  As I had suspected, my grandma's arm did not just randomly break but there was an underlying issue.  Her liver cancer has more than likely spread, again, to the left arm right where it broke.  We did not do any further x-rays to see where else it may have spread, but we know it may have spread to other bones as well.  She will go in a week or so to the Ohio State University Hospital to an older adult bone cancer specialist for a consult.  Surgery will probably follow, more for comfort measures than anything else.  The bone really will not heal because of the lesion.  Biopsies will be taken during the surgery so we will then know what we are dealing with.

In the meanwhile, Melody was at home all day and she was not feeling well.  Once Grandma was settled back at my aunt and uncles house I went back over to see Melody.  I do not have the strength or resources to move her around a lot without help so she was in bed all day.  I felt sad and not for myself.  This is hard for me, yes, but it is the hardest on her.  She has always been a very strong person and now she is too weak to even sit up on her own.  The once independent person is now completely dependent on others for every necessity in life.  I do not even claim to understand her situation, how could I?  I had a plan for the next day that I knew would work perfectly.  I am superwoman don’t you forget, I can do anything I set my mind to.  Well, can I just say things don’t always go as expected? I know this may come as a surprise to some but I am, after all, not superwoman.  I know that in the future I will once again become superwoman, but right now I am more bleak in my outlook.  Melody is going to a nursing home today.  It is a decision she made last night.  I want her to have as much independence as she can.  She can make her own decisions for her life so I am going to help her.