An update

I am back. When I thought things could not be any more unsettled, I get another curve tossed my way. One the mother in law front, I was wrong. She has anaplastic thyroid cancer. They have pretty much given her 3 to 6 months to live. She will do some radiation treatment to shrink the mass and then it is make her comfortable time. At least, she stands to have a decent 3 to 6 months to do some things and enjoy her family and friends. It will be indeed a long and sad good bye.

That was today's news. Yesterday, my father in law was far more confused than usual. He also lost control of his bodily functions (I held my father's piss bucket, apparently I was the best, when he was in the hospital. I am NOT doing that one again. That should be the role of my brother in law, though apparently my brother and my cousin, the doctor, well psychiatrist, were incapable of holding dad's piss bucket the way he liked. Also, I am not cleaning THAT mess up. I have standards, low as they may be, they are still standards.) My sister in law thought it may be a urinary tract infection. Any infection causes his dementia to actually be worse.

He was taken to the emergency room last night and the Wife followed around 7 pm. I have not seen her since. She, and my brother in law, stayed with him in emerg. all night. They are supposed to admit him. He is not coming home. My mother in law cannot deal with him at home in her state/condition, so she can visit him in a home. Sad, but this is where the road was going to lead.

Anyway, as the Wife was taking her mother to the oncologist this morning, I got to miss work and hang out in emerg. with my father in law. I have no idea if he knew who I was. He mumbled stuff and would reach for imaginary stuff. He would futz and pull off his blankets and I would place them back. It was like the burden of Sisyphus. I would tuck him and he would take it off. This went on for too long. Then his sister came, so I figured she could deal with him and I could work.

I was told that I should stay until either he gets into a room or when his sister arrived. I hope he has a room by now, but he was comfortable in the emergency room cubby. They ruled out UTI, and think the trouble may be kidney related. He has had kidney trouble and had been seeing a nephrologist. He has a fucking team of doctors each looking at a different organ and system. It is all uncoordinated, which would account for him falling down from time to time.

There that is the update. I may have written some gems down and I will report them later. They are blackly funny, at least to me. Then again, black humor has been my raison d'etre (reason for being in French) since I was a teenager. What kind of parents had a fucked up, morbid, black humored, kid like me? Well, I do know their names, but it makes me wonder. Then again, I am thankful for it as it is the only way I know.

Ciao!