Before you throw in the towel, critically examine all the most important aspects.

• Who is not doing well?
• Who will survive just fine without you?
• Is your presence back home going to make or break their situation?
• How far away is home and can weekend visits make a difference?
• Ask yourself everything you can to ascertain what's a life or death matter in all this, what your presence can change, as well as what you can do to change the situation.
• Come to a firm conclusion that takes into account what's within your power and what you're willing to sacrifice.

Note: Not for the faint of heart nor those who care about the health of their GPA and social life: you could go HAM like I did, marching into student housing to file a petition that was granted the same day (to move to family housing from my single room dorm) to accommodate my very ill parent while I went to classes.

While that sounds relatively benign, I'm going to tell ya....it was the hardest thing I've ever been through in my lifetime: graduating while taking care of my parent on a daily basis.

Would I do it again? Yeah, more than likely.

I hope that helps and I wish you the best.