Fortunately, the final crawlspace inspection from the county is close at hand along with wrapping up a couple of punch list items. And mom's leg/foot issue has gotten a lot better.

We were hoping things would be calm in August so we could catch our breath from everything that has gone on for the last two to three months but it wasn't meant to be.

Two days after taking my mom to one of her appointments, I started feeling sick. Fatigue, sneezing, coughing, headache.

I've had all that before, tested for Covid, and it was negative, but this time I tested positive.

Because my sis was here at the time helping me out with some things, she stuck around to help care for me and to do the caregiving for Mom since I was unable to.

Two days later, my sis was sick, too. Ugh.

It was my second time in four years with Covid, so I know a bit about what to expect assuming my latest round would be anything like my last (it was). But she'd managed to avoid Covid all this time so she was a little scared.

To the extent I could, I tried to take care of her for the 24 hours she was here after she woke up sick. Mom did what she could as well, not for us because I didn't want her around us but she made sure to take her meds when she was supposed to and would get the food in for us when we ordered in (which was a lot).

Poor mom also had to sleep in the recliner for a week, because I was quarantined in her room and my sis was in mine, so that was designated as the "sick wing" where she wasn't allowed.

Needless to say, after several days passed and I tested negative twice (mom has tested negative throughout all of this, praise the Lord), the first order of business was to sanitize and clean the bedrooms which included stripping the bedding and using industrial-strength amounts of Lysol and Clorox all over the place.

Doing all of that even once you've gotten over the worst parts of Covid is tough, because it takes so much out of your body to fight it that you get exhausted doing the simplest of things. At least that's how it was for me.

But before we got there, I spent a full week pretty much fully ostracized from my family which gave me a lot of time to think and reflect on things like learning to rest in the moment, to let go of things you can't change, and to go with the flow. 

These are all things I have a very hard time doing, but I resolved that on Monday, my first day getting back into the swing of things, I was going to take baby steps on the going-with-the-flow thing. To my surprise, even though I had a lot going on, it wasn't so difficult give or take a couple of moments where I had to take deep breaths to maintain my patience.

Life does indeed come at you fast sometimes. We can either try to make the best of it or make it worse with how we react to it. I'm choosing to try and do better.  I'm not saying this will be easy to do every day, but it's a start, and I need to commit to it for my emotional and mental health.

SEE ALSO: To read my previous Caregiver's Diary entries, please click here.