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A site worth plugging, http://www.hystersisters.com/

I found it referenced in a Woman’s Day article that my Stepmother gave me to look at and to share with my Mom . After checking it out, it actually offered some useful background for me in understanding what my Mom just went through over the last year, and what to expect in the coming months. Also offers some advice for family and caregivers which I take seriously as moving through this with my Mom has been a serious learning experience, not only about the conditions she was suffering from, but learning about our relationship and the role reversal taking place. Both my Mom and I have learned alot, and I’m just glad I could be there for her over the last year. I’ve also learn about what women face, not only seniors, but younger women as well, and have more empathy for what a Hysterectomy can represent for them. It has also been a surprise for me how forthcoming women I know have been with me who have had a hysterectomy, sharing their experiences, the outcomes, some of the emotions and insecurities they had. It’s made helping my Mom tackle the uncertainties a little easier.

I have returned from yet another leave of blogging absence. Life was somewhat hectic the last few months, and there just wasn’t enough steam left at the end of the day to say a thing. I’ve been lucky lately to just check emails, let alone reply to them. Not even energy to snap some photos until last week, or upload the old photos I had taken.

I’m out of the woods now though, and have some personal time back to myself to fritter way blissfully, although I should probably be in bed right now, the urge was there to post, and that urge hasn’t surfaced in a long while.

A couple of semi-major life events have eaten my time since the middle of May.

First, I moved again. Yes, but this time a significant upgrade, and only $25 more a month. For half of May I was renting two homes, my old duplex and my new one, just west under 2 miles down the road, in a decent neighborhood, 99% free of multi-family housing (except for my place and few others), deep within the subdivision, far away from freeway noise and the main drag, with a nearby park to boot. I’m in my old hood again, but on the nice side of the subdivision, far from the Croetto Ghetto, but close enough to see the chopper assaults from my front yard at night and hear them buzzing away as they orbit over Mills Park Drive, Croetto and Woodberry Way.

The other big event was that my Mom finally went in for surgery, a Hysterectomy and Bladder surgery. I’d been taking her to appointments since May ’06, going with her to 2 “DNC”s, a colonoscopy, and numerous visits to her general practitioner, obgyn and surgeon. After her surgery, my sister and I took time off from work to take care of my Mom, and it was all that it was explained to us it would be, but my Mom is pretty tough and is doing better. I’ll talk about the trials and tribulations of that in another post.

So, I’ve been a little busy, split between 3 homes at one point, taking care of my Mom’s place, moving into my new place and wrapping things up at my old place. Only in the last week have I had some time to start gardening, and plant Portulaca I bought in June.

Oh yeah, that’s the other thing, I’ve begun to garden, inspired by my taking care of my Mom’s garden during her recovery, and my Dad and Stepmom’s garden. Ever since my Dad died, when I visit my StepMom, I go in the back yard and take it all in, all the plants he’d nurtured, some for several years. Eat fruit from trees he planted…..it’s weird, I guess I feel it’s the last of him, or his labors still full of life. He always encouraged me to take up gardening, both flowers and fruit/vegetables, but I never had time or patience. I’ve found the exercise of gardening to be very calming and rewarding.

I’ve also been doing something my Dad and I used to do years ago; cruising the neighborhood looking for gardening/landscaping ideas. At the time he and I were cruising around, I took it for granted, and usually just dreaded the work that lay ahead for me to help him with. I really appreciate now how much work folks put into their yards and gardens. The time, labor, creative energy and financial investment really shows in some gardens.

I’ll sign off here now, leaving a link to my gardening escapades, as I indulge myself in dreams of slumming at Capital Nursery, and reading my copy of Sunset’s Western Garden Book, circa 1989 in the john.

nOOb’s Gardening Adventure