The Past Year --#2

More about 2012
Welcome to the second installment of my 2012 year! Thanks for bearing with me as I explore how past events have impacted me.

The First Move
For almost two years my husband and I had uprooted ourselves from our home in the country to take care of my husband's mom, Yon.  She's had some medical difficulties, including strokes, and couldn't live on her own.  I'ts been difficult medically, and emotionally.

Our job was to encourage her to eat, exercise, and to have a little social interaction, all while increasing her strength and improving her health. That, by itself, was a full-time job! Anger, passive-aggressiveness and drama were the response. (And those are only my husband and my responses ... only kidding!)

Caring for someone is really no different from my work with my clients with learning differences. There's nothing I can really do unless they WANT my help. It's not about me, or how hard I want to help someone, they must be willing to change.

For Yon it personally isn't so much about what she wants.  It was about what she doesn't want. And, she doesn't want my help.

Different Perspectives
My mother-in-law is not a native American and her ideas can be quite different from mine. On the flip-side, this was the only time I've ever spent with her.  So as hard as it's been, this is the only time we've been together as a family. At least now I have some funny stories to tell. [Let's just say friends tell me in my next career I should do stand-up comedy using my YON material!]

Where's the part about dyslexia?
This is about dyslexia! From my perspective, this is about how someone with dyslexia has dealt with a difficult situation.  As a dyslexic there are traits that come about because of our natural way of dealing with the world. Another thing I'm susceptible to are environmental toxins.

That susceptibility increases as stress levels rise, environmental factors change...and even things like rearranging a room can affect some dyslexic people. I've found that under certain stressful circumstances I'm susceptible to a negative feeling from these factors, too.

Since I was born the list of things that bother me has changed from nylon, to wool; to cranberries, bleach, oranges, and things that I'm over-exposed to like...my mother-in-law's hair spray! The list changes from time to time as stresses come and go. [And to be fair, I'm sure I added my share of stresses to her life, as well!]

For me, all it took was a small whiff of her hair product, and I was in bed for days. At one point my husband threw her hair spray in the trash, she retrieved it....

Medically I know there are various ways to treat these difficulties but one thing I discovered were Epsom Salt baths. They helped me tremendously!
Read about the Davis Dyslexia 37 Common Traits of Dyslexia here:

Prone to ear infections; sensitive to foods, additives, and chemical products. Read more: http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm#ixzz2HJLuGPWR

The Second Move
Living with Yon came to an end one evening when her anger got the best of her.  It was late one evening, my husband and I were sitting on the couch intently watching a program we love when she came into the room. She immediately became extremely agitated because I was sitting down.

A daughter-in-law, from her perspective, should be working: cleaning, cooking, being a wife -all of the time. In her eyes I am a failure.  She let loose. We had to leave.

Remember, we'd uprooted ourselves from our home which meant now we were stuck in total limbo. Over the next few months we enacted our third phase of house hunting in the 'Yon Time Period'. I guess we can say that in 2012 my husband and I weren't planning on becoming expert house hunters, but ask our Realtor, we've made a pretty good stab at that title!