EDIT 12/2- Retirement income arrived

This journal’s purpose is to describe in sufficient detail the stress my family and myself have dealt with since March 11th, as well as being a general life update, since I haven’t posted a journal since April. I can’t really make a TL;DR version of it.

This morning my Father was given a choice of either termination or retirement. He is 60 years old. A few years ago, he worked at Union Carbide’s marine terminal unloading ships- When Dow chemical took over, he was forced to take a position as a “process operator” which involved learning a lot of technical information that stressed him out. In 2010 he had been given a “last chance letter” after mistakenly using sick pay to visit my mother in the hospital after she suffered a stroke. These latest incidents apparently were sufficient for the decision for his leaving the company against his will.

In regard to my financial situation and PAYMENT of anything- I paid off my one outstanding commission today within an hour of learning of my father’s forced retirement, and explained the situation to the artist.

I owe no money to anyone on furaffinity or the internet in general, I paid with my money from my job- this includes the money I sent to the Japanese red cross, my family knows of my spending on everything and they were proud I donated.

I owe no money to UHCL, I paid this semester out-of-pocket as usual (over $2500), I paid with my money from my job. I have 4 years to take 6 classes and write a capstone. Loans can handle that if necessary. My GPA is 3.818.

I have no debt currently, and on my own income I am well above the poverty line. I will be ok.

I will NEVER ask furaffinity or the internet in general for donations because of this. I’ve held my job for about 7 years now, and people think I “kickass” <- quote from manager- at it.

Commissions are not part of my budget until things here are settled- The main income of the household is being replaced by retirement income, so IT ISN’T PRACTICAL TO TAKE ON NEW COMMISSIONS UNTIL THINGS ARE SORTED OUT. I have every right to bid or buy what I want as long as I can pay for it while keeping my family’s safety as a priority, but for right now, I’m not too keen on it.

Income will be that retirement, my mother’s disability payment, my brother’s paycheck, my paycheck, and once his wife finds a job, hers as well I suppose-Yeah, only a little while after my father’s initial hospitalization, my brother married his wife in April. She came here from India. I would imagine that this stress had to be far harder on her than anyone else.

After asking the family’s permission I looked into staying at my friend’s apartment as a backup plan if needed- Over the course of these difficulties, I had asked them to cosign for a nearby complex a couple of times, and My father asked me to stay when I made these requests. According to their office, It wouldn’t be an issue to add me to his lease. He was happy to offer because it would lessen his burden, and I told him from the beginning that he had no obligation. He had been asking me to move in for quite a while, and we had discussed it during these last few months while I kept him current on my father’s health

That fancy comic I recently posted? It was paid for in full before work began, well over a year ago- Life issues come up, delays are understandable

It is through a combination of sick pay and medical leave that general things have been paid, except for incidents where I was asked to handle things..which brings me to the situation with the household

After we spent the money from the settlement we received for damages to the house from Hurricane Ike (it’s long gone now, the settlement arrived during the time that my father was receiving mental and physical treatments), I ended up paying $1500 for plumbing replacement (which is being reimbursed as having paid several months’ rent in advance), and $370 for removing sheetrock that had mold on it from my closet, the cause of which was faulty work on the bathroom that was done by the contractor my parents hired, who fucked us over- at least it’s functional and there isn’t an issue now

It is because of all this stress that I began looking into what my AA degree and (eventual) BS Psych degree would allow me to do. Much of my summer was preoccupied with this. I plan on finishing my Bachelor’s before looking further.

FATHER’S MENTAL ISSUES –On March 11th, my father was hospitalized after not taking his psychoactive medication (he was diagnosed as bipolar and has since had a change due to this incident and is now considered clinically depressed). He had hidden the fact that he was struggling to afford it, and his debt contributed a lot to his depression. He hid a lot from all of us. My brother and I had to convince a regional expert on Electroconvulsive therapy that such a measure wasn’t necessary after an incident where my father’s physical medication reacted with his psychoactive medication violently and he refused to take some medication for a while after…ECT is an option reserved for those who don’t respond to meds well, not those who are non-compliant

FATHER’S PHYSICAL ISSUE- about a week before the initial hospitalization, my father got medicine for his prostate to reduce inflammation. While he was managing with that, over the course of all this time (months later) we found out he had a huge kidney stone resting on either an artery or vein. Insurance helped and the surgery was done successfully.

That all being said, my father is currently looking for employment, and I have taken over paying the vonage bill. I will take on more if necessary.

I believe in being straightforward with people about situations unless special circumstances dictate that such behavior isn’t appropriate. I didn’t believe it was practical to let people worry over me and wait for updates; that stress isn’t fair or healthy.