You Know You're Working Too Much When. . .

You look forward to a ten day stay at the hospital as a vacation.

My crafter extraordinaire mother had to have back surgery. She had the first operation which resulted in more pain than before the surgery. The doctors then discovered my mother had a major blood clot resting on her spine, so they had to do a second surgery. I knew she must have been in terrible pain when she didn’t object. My mother is strong like an ox and would deny ever being sick, so for her to agree with no objection, I knew it must have been worse than she was letting on.

Hospitals are no place for sick people. After the second op, she caught pneumonia from one of the nurses. Why does the hospital let sick people look after other sick people? Surely hospital staff must have sick days?

Hospitals are also no place to get any rest. Who can sleep through the night with assistants coming in every hour to check vitals. Why this is necessary when she has one of those red lights taped on her finger that feeds vitals to a monitor, I have no idea.

I know about this every hour wake up routine because I stayed with my mom – night and day - the whole ten days in her room. I became quite used to the pull out sofa couch and left it permanently made as a bed. For the first day, my mother had to lay flat on her back for 24 hours (and that’s after having back surgery – how excruciating!) because the doctor had nicked her spinal sack and spinal fluid leaked. Well, the nurses hardly ever came in to give her ice cubes. If I hadn’t have been there, I don’t know how she would have had anything to drink.

The only time I left her room was to eat (I could not possibly eat another Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande for the rest of the year. . .well, maybe in November.) and use the internet. This is the waterfall next to the public computer where I surfed.

Taking time out from my normal work life made me realize I really missed working on the crafty projects my mother and I used to do together and that I have the very best teacher (a retired tailor) from whom to learn to sew, so I’d better get started.

Sew long for now and don’t get sick!