Ah, yes. Sleep. Curling up in your bed, under your covers just so, your brain refreshing and resetting for the next day. It’s awesome. Except when it’s habitually interrupted.
Say what?
Well, you see, my mother just had her second knee replacement surgery. For those of you who don’t know, it’s incapacitating those first few months. So my sister and I are helping her with things.
She also has an elderly, sick dog who needs practically round-the-clock care. And he sometimes gets up as early as 5am. And sometimes doesn’t go back to sleep after he eats and is let out.
Luckily, that’s not a regular occurrence.
However, there’s his feeding/medication schedule: he’s fed three times a day and given various medications also three times a day. I had to set alarms for everything or I’d forget something. Now I’m a bit better, but if I get absorbed in something I still may forget.
And then there’s letting him out to do his business. He could theoretically go out ten times in a row and only pee once or twice. But because we’re afraid to have accidents, we let him out every single time. And that’s exhausting because you have to watch him and then make sure he gets a treat afterward.
But I am not complaining. Honest. He’s a sweet dog, and loving, and I know somewhere in that little brain of his he appreciates our love and care. He’s a former puppy mill dog, and when my mom first got him, he had severe trust issues. He’s come a long way since then. He still has separation anxiety, but that’s nothing compared to before.
Of course, there’s the chronic illnesses I deal with on a daily basis. Normally, I’m at about 50% — and that’s a good day. I need nine hours of sleep to be functional, and if I miss that, well…I’m a slug. My sleep time has been broken up mostly because Butch gets up at different times every day and I always try to nap after, and I seem to need more sleep in the afternoon after I do my virtual assistant work for the day. So I’m probably at around 30%. Not really functional, but trying to function anyway. It’s necessary, and temporary, and I truly don’t mind. But I have my moments when I get frustrated with things. I’m human. And I’m not the most patient person in the world, and I tend to get irritable if I miss sleep.
But then I remember that both my mom and Butch can’t help any of it, and I try to relax and do the best I can. One day, I might be in her shoes and need help. One day, I might have a sick animal that needs extra care. And as I’ve said, Butch is sweet. He certainly can’t help being sick.
So at the end of the day, I try to feel like I’ve accomplished something. I’ve helped my mom and him in some manner, made things easier, kept things rolling.
I may need more sleep than most people, but hey, that’s life. Can’t change who I am any more than Mom can change her circumstances or Butch his.
We just gotta keep moving, and trying, and living and…
:snores: