.sarah
11-27-2005, 11:13 PM
After a really great Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family, things have gone downhill.
The morning after Thanksgiving my Pawpaw let his Shih Tzu, Lady, out to go potty and she started walking down the street. While my Pawpaw went after her he fell over the curb and broke his hip. He had surgery this morning and, thankfully, the doctor said his bone density is really good for a man his age (80ish) and he thinks my Pawpaw will make a good recovery. However, a lot of elderly people don't live longer than a year after breaking their hips. Plus there is months of recovery and he is going to have to live in a nursing home or rehabilitation center. This has everyone worried about my Nana. She has horrible health problems and every hour - two hours has to hook up to two different machines for 20-30 minutes to help her breathe. She has horrible lungs and the poor woman has never touched a cigarette in her life. She's getting weaker by the day. Last Christmas we all went out and bought funeral clothing because the doctor said she didn't have long to live and there was no treatment for her. She has more than surpassed her odds but she is still in bad shape. My Pawpaw is a really strong man. He has always been her caretaker and the past few years he has been everything for her. We are all worried what is going to happen now that he won't be living with her.
My dad also is supposed to have surgery, but it will be on his shoulder on Thursday. Unfortunately he packed up his backs right after he heard about my Pawpaw and drove to the hospital (over 2 hours away) where he was. Then my Pawpaw was transferred back to where he lives (he was staying with his daughter for Thanksgiving) which is another three hour drive for my dad. The doctors can't properly diagnose what is wrong with my dad and can only tell him that rehabilitation and recovery time will be anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months. Basically all he will be able to do is simple things like typing. He can't lift his arm as it is, but it will be worse right after surgery. Now, my dad is thinking of putting off the surgery again (he has been putting it off for a year) to care for my Pawpaw, which will be really hard for him to do. He can't cart around a man when his shoulder isn't properly working. He could injure himself even more.
My brother also has problems with his head ... I don't really know any other way to put it. He is extremely messed up from years of drugs and a gang beating two years ago. Over the summer he was hospitalized for over two weeks. They decided to put him on Paxil. He was perfectly fine for four months, but on Wednesday of last week he decided to stop taking it without telling us. He has been on edge ever since. Friday night fighting started again (it used to be a daily thing before he went on it) between my mom and brother. Saturday morning my brother acted like he had done nothing wrong when he had ruined our evening entirely. My mom and brother fought for a few hours Saturday and my mom tried several times to kick my brother out. She told him "take the pill or leave". My brother wanted neither and he continued yelling for much longer than was needed. I don't want to get into too much detail, but my brother is really messed up in the head. He is also extremely selfish and thinks he is always right. So when he says the medicine isn't working and he won't take it of course my mom gets pissed. Before he was on the medicine he would literally take a baseball bat to things and destroy things on our property. We have numerous holes in our house from him. The last four months while he has been on the pill he has been fine, but Friday night my mom found him with a bat in his hand getting ready to hit our garage door. He has, thankfully, never hit us, but my mom has been carrying a bat around just in case. And, finally, with much cursing and yelling, he took his pill on Saturday. I don't know if he's taken it today, but even so it's just a matter of time before he quits again. I have honestly come extremely close to writing Oprah. I know it sounds dumb, but when you're family can't do anything (he's legally an adult and they can't control him) what else can you do? I'm sure there are other people out there like him. He needs a serious kick in the butt. He effects the entire family every day when he is like this. We can't go on vacations, we can't go to the store unless he goes with us. It's horrible living with him.
AND, my mom seriously hurt her back tonight. We're not sure what's wrong but she can barely move. She's going to the doctor in the morning. She's just worried that it's really serious.
Nova's getting spayed tomorrow as well. It's like my entire family will be at the hospital/doctor's office! :(
The morning after Thanksgiving my Pawpaw let his Shih Tzu, Lady, out to go potty and she started walking down the street. While my Pawpaw went after her he fell over the curb and broke his hip. He had surgery this morning and, thankfully, the doctor said his bone density is really good for a man his age (80ish) and he thinks my Pawpaw will make a good recovery. However, a lot of elderly people don't live longer than a year after breaking their hips. Plus there is months of recovery and he is going to have to live in a nursing home or rehabilitation center. This has everyone worried about my Nana. She has horrible health problems and every hour - two hours has to hook up to two different machines for 20-30 minutes to help her breathe. She has horrible lungs and the poor woman has never touched a cigarette in her life. She's getting weaker by the day. Last Christmas we all went out and bought funeral clothing because the doctor said she didn't have long to live and there was no treatment for her. She has more than surpassed her odds but she is still in bad shape. My Pawpaw is a really strong man. He has always been her caretaker and the past few years he has been everything for her. We are all worried what is going to happen now that he won't be living with her.
My dad also is supposed to have surgery, but it will be on his shoulder on Thursday. Unfortunately he packed up his backs right after he heard about my Pawpaw and drove to the hospital (over 2 hours away) where he was. Then my Pawpaw was transferred back to where he lives (he was staying with his daughter for Thanksgiving) which is another three hour drive for my dad. The doctors can't properly diagnose what is wrong with my dad and can only tell him that rehabilitation and recovery time will be anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months. Basically all he will be able to do is simple things like typing. He can't lift his arm as it is, but it will be worse right after surgery. Now, my dad is thinking of putting off the surgery again (he has been putting it off for a year) to care for my Pawpaw, which will be really hard for him to do. He can't cart around a man when his shoulder isn't properly working. He could injure himself even more.
My brother also has problems with his head ... I don't really know any other way to put it. He is extremely messed up from years of drugs and a gang beating two years ago. Over the summer he was hospitalized for over two weeks. They decided to put him on Paxil. He was perfectly fine for four months, but on Wednesday of last week he decided to stop taking it without telling us. He has been on edge ever since. Friday night fighting started again (it used to be a daily thing before he went on it) between my mom and brother. Saturday morning my brother acted like he had done nothing wrong when he had ruined our evening entirely. My mom and brother fought for a few hours Saturday and my mom tried several times to kick my brother out. She told him "take the pill or leave". My brother wanted neither and he continued yelling for much longer than was needed. I don't want to get into too much detail, but my brother is really messed up in the head. He is also extremely selfish and thinks he is always right. So when he says the medicine isn't working and he won't take it of course my mom gets pissed. Before he was on the medicine he would literally take a baseball bat to things and destroy things on our property. We have numerous holes in our house from him. The last four months while he has been on the pill he has been fine, but Friday night my mom found him with a bat in his hand getting ready to hit our garage door. He has, thankfully, never hit us, but my mom has been carrying a bat around just in case. And, finally, with much cursing and yelling, he took his pill on Saturday. I don't know if he's taken it today, but even so it's just a matter of time before he quits again. I have honestly come extremely close to writing Oprah. I know it sounds dumb, but when you're family can't do anything (he's legally an adult and they can't control him) what else can you do? I'm sure there are other people out there like him. He needs a serious kick in the butt. He effects the entire family every day when he is like this. We can't go on vacations, we can't go to the store unless he goes with us. It's horrible living with him.
AND, my mom seriously hurt her back tonight. We're not sure what's wrong but she can barely move. She's going to the doctor in the morning. She's just worried that it's really serious.
Nova's getting spayed tomorrow as well. It's like my entire family will be at the hospital/doctor's office! :(