If you can't say anything nice...

so I haven't been saying much.  Not that I'm upset or bothered by anything its just that life has been overwhelming lately and kinda dull to read about.  I thought I'd wrap up the woes and miseries of 2010 today and perhaps tomorrow or the next day everything will seem brighter.

MIL remains ... not well?  I'm not sure what there is to say, she's not actually sick but a lot of things are not right.  She has that chronic obliterating pneumonia that's being held in check a bit by high dose steroids, her kidneys are failing: so badly that she mostly can't feel one foot at all from all the edema in her lower leg and feet and she also can't walk.  At all.  So she's been in a rehab place forever trying to maintain some strength and figure out how to walk should her edema ever get better.  She's unhappy and half-crazy so you can imagine that creates challenging interactions.  We are presently preparing for her to come home as she is no longer benefitting from PT but she won't agree to the changes that need to be made to her apartment before she can be there safely.  Tomorrow Rob and I are going to lay all the cards on the table and see if she changes her tune: she can't come home until she agrees to the installation and use of a chair lift in her stairway. If she's discharged from the Rehab place before that happens she'll have to be placed elsewhere.  Not really looking forward to that visit.

That Other Thing (TOT) continues to challenge us with her trifecta of diabetes/celiac and Hashimoto's.  Her blood glucose management is awful: there has been a LOT of covert eating.  According to data from her continuous glucose monitor, her bg has been in range only 30% of the time in the last two months.  She's  mostly extremely high...a clear waste of insulin and worry.  I'm a little uncertain what to do: I don't want to get all controlling with food and create the kinds of issues that typically brings.  I don't know how or where but she's also getting gluten somehow in her food: her tummy is all distended again.  I'm thinking maybe we need the help of a therapist.

But Christmas was nice.  We spent Christmas Eve in a winter wonderland over at the newly developed National Harbor   As lovely as some moments were, it reminded me of why I rarely go to places like museums....people always push themselves to the front, stand in the way, exhibit all kinds of entitlement behavior that really annoys me.  Christmas Day, MIL was able to spend at home with us and that was very nice.  Lovely gifts, good food, plenty to be happy about.

Two-thousand and ten, I would like to say that it's been a tough year: far too tough.  I won't miss you at all.  Not even the blissful days I spent on the beach with my kiddies in August.