Wow! This past week has been different. We drove to Virginia in one day (around 700 miles) and arrived at our hotel. My husband and I had both forgotten which hotel we had reserved. We both have brain fog and drove past our hotel and on to the wrong one. Then, we had to go back to the correct hotel and crash in the beds.
We were both just too tired and not checking our emails to see where we should go. It’s sad that brain fog is so bad, but it is. We came to visit our son and the guys had plans to get a lot of work done at his home.
With our son’s job taking more time than it should, he really needed some help to get some needed projects done. The guys dove in and wore protective clothing because they were dealing with poison ivy. Our son had purchased sun hats with flaps and protective overclothes to keep the sun off and the poison ivy from spreading onto them.
I believe that these protective clothes worked well so far. They still got ticks on their bodies and must do a thorough check for ticks every evening. I stayed inside with my grandchild and daughter-in-law. I enjoyed playing with him, but he is extremely active. I made the mistake of trying to keep up with him.
So far, I am able to visit one day and then rest in the hotel the next day. The on again and off again ability to function is sad to me, because I would love to be the grandmother that is fun and active. Of course, I’m not active enough to keep up with a toddler. But I can be fun. I think we’re having a good relationship and I’m thrilled to be able to play with him.
My goal in this stage of life is to be a part of my children’s and grandchildren’s lives. Although I would love to be strong enough to do more for them and with them, I have accepted that just being there is good enough.
I’m glad that I’m alive and that they will at least get to know me. I hope that I can live and let them have good memories of time spent with me. I certainly love them and have a blast being with them.
I don’t know how long we’ll be able to push ourselves to make these trips. Our children live so far away from us, and I think I must push my husband to switch to flying. Driving is too hard on my body and his. There will also come a time when our children will need to visit us instead.
Having so much chronic pain and fatigue is overwhelming and hard to explain to people who are in their early thirties. Sometimes even family members don’t try hard enough to understand. But when I was a younger adult, I wouldn’t have understood either.
How do you handle traveling? Are you able to travel as you would like? Do you feel depressed when you can’t make the trips that would give you joy? We can accept our limitations or spend more time planning ways to use mobility tools to give us the ability to move around.
@2022, copyright Lisa Ehrman