I made it into my office this morning for the first time in 2 weeks--I've been working a few hours each day from home then spending the afternoons at the hospital with my father. I whittled down my list of "things to do at the office", though not as far as I planned. Part the delay was for trading stories with two other people dealing with family health problems.

Chris, my supervisor, buried his brother yesterday after a battle with cancer that lasted over a year. Chris was the medical decision maker, I think, so he's been coping with things with more immediacy than you'd expect for an adult sibling's care.

Mike, who I've worked with both at USGS and earlier at the Georgia Geologic Survey (so, approaching 30 years, off and on), is dealing with his father's liver cancer--hospice care at this point, and he's no longer conscious so it won't be long. Mike and I particularly traded details, like local subacute care facilities, ICU delirium (his mother recovered from it after several weeks), and stuff like that.

So, we trade details, comment on the difficulty of making medical decisions, and (hopefully) share the load a little. Worthwhile use of that office time...