1. One of my wonderful friends was about to have a bouncing baby boy. He came in early November and is beautiful! (I have lots of details for his shower still to post, including some super cute invitations!)
2. Per #1, Work was about to get harder because my friend was also a coworker. She needed time to enjoy her new little one, and unfortunately my workplace did not "cover" her leave. This meant my heavy caseload would increase by half a heavy caseload. Ew. Post-acute brain injury cases can be very intense. Especially in as an intensive program as I was with.
3. At work, we were looking at overhauling our service delivery model to accommodate a few issues: 1)Scheduling had become a hot mess, 2)Understaffing, 3)Evolution in billing/reimbursement issues in post acute rehab, 4)Functional treatment was giving way to routine, 5)Teamwork was declining and communication was an issue. This change came in the form of transdisciplinary teams. Not something commonplace in rehab or something to easily conceptualize.
4. Travis's work was rolling along with the usual stressors including anxiety about end/beginning of the year evaluation/raise/benefits mess.
5. My Nonnie was living in a memory care facility as her vascular dementia had progressed significantly after my Pops passed away from cancer last early summer. I was worried about holidays and all the speechie stuff that one worries about when changing environments/routines of someone with dementia.
6. A position at my alma mater opened up for a clinical instructor position. So....I ended up reducing to part time at my full time position and accepting the CI position. Post-acute brain injury in the morning and clinic/supervision/charter school in the afternoons. I will forever be grateful for that opportunity. I learned so much in the time I was there from some amazing therapists and clients.
At my morning job it became apparent that no one had any idea about what/why the service delivery change was. In order to keep my sanity I dove in to research and documentation development. Ended up learning a TON about transdisciplinary principles and procedure development.
Holidays went fairly uneventfully. Nonnie made it through fine. Although we knew it would be her last holidays with us at the house, we were so very glad we got to spend this time with her.
End of January brought some more news:
1. Travis was allowed to develop and lecture a course about engineering and the law. Right up his alley. Lots of work involved, but a great experience.
2. Other job stuff for him wasn't going so great. We were fast approaching decision time. He started exploring other options with other companies.
3. On the other hand, my job situation was calming down. Service delivery change was rolling along and they had recently hired a wonderful SLPA who would move to full time after graduation. My work at the University was picking up, and I was getting the hang of multiple-location-population therapy.
In March my Nonnie passed away in her sleep. It was a progression of the vascular dementia that slowly started shutting down her body systems. I was heartbroken. She hadn't been my Nonnie as I will always remember her in a while, and I know what she had gone through must have been very scary. Just before I learned that Pops had passed away I received a strong feeling that he was telling me he had to go now so he could be waiting to dance with Nonnie as soon as she arrived. At the end, I am at peace that she is now dancing with Pops in paradise.
Needless to say, with all this going on I was not really feeling the crafty/bloggy world. I also was probably a pretty crummy friend during this time. Sorry about that. I'll try to make it up to you.
However, there is absolutely no way I could have done this without support from so many. My husband is an amazing blessing and has held my hand and supported me through all the rough times. My family has been a constant source of support and encouraging words (thanks, mom and dad, for all the support and fun facts). My best friend, whom I miss dearly, listened and supported all my word-vomit about the situation even if it meant moving across the state.
Whew.
What a beautiful mess life is.
What a beautiful mess life is.
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