8/27

 This is what Ethan’s dialysis catheter looks like. It’s decent in size and hides under his shirt. We did dialysis today.

Today I worked as well as went to two pharmacies. I made several calls to different agencies. Most I had to leave a message and likely won’t get a return call. Sigh. I was able to forward paperwork via dinosaur fax to SSI as I still need to provide documentation of certain things. I made a call about Medicare paperwork to get the ball rolling with our financial coordinator. Ethan qualifies due to his complicated medical history.

We have to financially separate from him now that he is 18. This is hard because typically parents still somewhat support their 18 year old kids. 

I also know that Avery has been neglected by me this week. I so much enjoy being around her. I made it a point to do stuff with her this weekend. We both will benefit.

I overheard someone complaining about how stressful their life is because they have to take their kids school supplies shopping. I wanted to shake the nonsense right out of her. Are you kidding me? THAT is your stress? As I began to downward spiral with jealousy and anger I paused.

I then was thinking that everyone has their level of stress that they can tolerate until they can’t. It is all relative to what they have going on in THEIR life, or what THEY have been through.  It is unfair for me to upset over her statement because she hasn’t gone through anything remotely close to anything we have gone through over the last year. While I would love to have back to school shopping the biggest issue on my mind, it is not.  Sometimes I need these life checks to put things into perspective about our non-ideal lifestyle right now.

I also got thinking, as stressful as things are now, our donor family is experiencing their own stress and emotion that is different than ours. Plus, we are in a better spot than we were several months ago. Everyone carries their own backpack full of stress. It makes it so important to be kind, not knowing what someone else is going through.