Spring 2008 sucks ass. I feel like my whole family is falling a part. A quick recap as to what's happened.
In winter my Father was told he had high blood pressure. About a month and a half ago, he had a heart attack, a mild one. However, a heart attack is a heart attack is a heart attack, whether mild, severe or fatal. Three weeks later, he went in for a triple bypass and ended up with a quadruple bypass. I went to see him the following weekend and when we arrived, he had left 15 minutes prior.
Around the same time, my mother was diagnosed with high blood pressure. She was put on medication. Her body had a reaction to the medication and developed an autoimmune disease. It's attacking her muscles, ligaments and skin tissue. She can barely move because of the pain and is currently living in a basement so she doesn't have to walk up or down any stairs. I went over there last week and had to move some furniture around because she's getting stir crazy.
My brother recently broke up with his girlfriend of five years. He's depressed and upset. He says he wants her out (because she left him) and he's packing her things, but his actions say otherwise. She's creating a lot of drama. 
I just learned that he's going to quit drinking, which is good. The revelation came to him after he was released from a hospital. Why was he in the hospital? Because he drank two bottles of whisky and a bunch of sleeping pills.
My other brother across the desert is going to snap one day. He's a cop, and carries a gun. He lives in a nothing town in the middle of nothing. He desperately needs to leave that place, but can't because his son is there. He refuses to leave his son, which is good. But that place will kill him if he doesn't leave.
My sister is estranged. She never calls, she doesn't participate much in family events and I have no clue what is happening to her. She just had her 23rd birthday, yesterday.
I feel I'm the only solid thing here. I just want to say to all of them, "I'm here for you. All you need to do is call. I will make time for you. I can offer some objectivity to your life, a different angle. Just give me a call before you do what I think you're going to do."
Maybe I've estranged myself. Maybe I'm the one who needs to take the initiative and do something, be there. Yes. I think I do.
Update: My mother started a blog. A sort of way to deal with her stir craziness.
Labels: blogs, challenge, disease, family, health, information, writing
