Yes, there will be a .journal update sometime this weekend to commemorate the .org turning nine years old earlier this month. My life has become painfully hectic since Mom went to the hospital a couple of months ago, and those of you who have been following my Twitter feed know about all of the other stuff that has popped up. I’m keeping the personal stuff close to my chest right now because I really can’t talk too much about that, particularly when so much of it is ongoing. In the meantime, I kind of need to post an update here about what’s gone on this past month with three members of the family.

First of all, Mom has finally been to see my sister and brother-in-law’s doctor, who is a lot better than the one she’d been seeing. Unfortunately, the infection in her belly isn’t going away through antibiotics alone, and she’s going to need surgery so they can cut all the infected parts out of her. On Wednesday she got an appointment at a surgery clinic for the middle of next month, and while I haven’t asked too many questions, I’m assuming that it’s then that we’ll finally find out when she’ll go under the knife. As desperate as I am for Mom to get better — she’s had nearly no energy since her hospitalization — the thought of her going under and getting sliced up is still something that really scares me. It’s going to mean more time by myself in this house, and even though I can prepare for it this time, it’s still not that easy to think about.

On my front, I had a bit of a relapse with my eye at the start of the month, probably induced by stress from what may have been the worst Halloween of my life. (Sorry, but I can’t really go into details about that.) Since then, though, it’s been getting better, even though I haven’t had antibiotics to put in it for over three weeks because Giant Eagle hasn’t gotten my eye gunk in. I don’t know if there’s a shortage of the gunk, or if Giant Eagle is just being really bad about filling the order, but whatever the case, I’d feel a lot better if I could start using it again, even if it is really gross. I’m on a steroid now to try to heal the scarring on my cornea (no small irony there), and while my vision is a bit better in that eye, it’s still kind of blurry. I’m guessing that I’ll wind up needing glasses at the end of this all; I’ll need to ask my ophthalmologist if I qualify for Lasik or not.

Finally, there’s my Aunt Jo, my mother’s younger sister and only sibling. On the 15th of this month, my sister got a call saying Aunt Jo had died. More specifically, Aunt Jo had died on the 16th of last month, and this was the first that any of us had heard about it. Mom and Jo were far from close; shortly after learning about her death, Mom referred to Jo as an "enemy," and that was a term I never thought I’d hear Mom say about anyone. Emotionally this wasn’t like losing Dad or my grandparents, but it was still a bit of a hit. More importantly, though, when their mother died in 2003, Jo was supposed to sell the family home in Michigan Center, Michigan (near Jackson) so she and Mom could split the money, and Jo still hadn’t gotten around to doing that. Now we’re having to hire a lawyer so we can try to get that situation handled, and having to come in more than a month after Jo died is, needless to say, likely to cause some serious problems. I just hope we can get those resolved soon, because having the money in hand for Mom’s surgery, when the time comes, would be nice.