I am on the edge of a breakdown. I am actually surprised to say that because it crept up on me. I have been like a frog in a pot of water on the stove. It started off cool, or at least pleasantly warm. But the stress has been building, I haven't had time to cool off between stressful situations, and it just keeps building. I am just a few degrees from being frog soup.
It started in September when my mom had her ankle replaced. Then the holidays hit. Then my dad injured himself and had to have hernia surgery. Then my mom had her knee replaced. Then my dad was surprised with a week of work interviewing new employees this week, just days after my mom came home from her surgery. My mom had a doctor's appointment she couldn't put off so I had to take her today. Oh, and my cat Bubbaloo had one of his teeth break off so we had to figure out how to get him to and from the vet with my dad's interview schedule. And we have had all the home health people traipsing through the house and I just want them all to go away.
I am in very hot water. It's not quite boiling, but it's getting close.
On Sunday, the day my mom came home from the hospital, I realized that the voices were getting loud. These aren't the normal ones that are always there, but are the ones that sound almost like I'm overhearing conversations from all around me. By this morning I was literally shaking and tried to see if my mom couldn't change her appointment or get another driver, but she had to get into the doc and it was too short notice to find anyone else. That the Goddess that my dad got home in time to pick up Bubbaloo from vet. I was on the edge of falling to the floor and sobbing if I had to do one more thing.
Fortunately the rest of the week is free. Well, my dad has to work tomorrow and Thursday and my mom will have all sorts of home health people in and out. Since her mobility is limited, that means I am the greeter. Just the thought of the doorbell ringing makes me jumpy right now, let alone actually needing to answer the door and at least saying hello.
I need things to calm down. I keep getting manic and frantically cleaning the kitchen or the living room. I spent 40 minutes trying to straighten all the framed needlework my mom has on the kitchen wall and I spent more than an hour meticulously decorating my dad's birthday cake. I am exhausted, but if I sit still I start to shake.
I need to get out of the pot, and soon. Or at least get the heat turned down. I need calm. I need the stress to go away. I just can't let myself break again. I'm still trying to mend the last fracture, and if I break again I don't know how to put it together again.
Please let the heat go away.
