...part two

(I really have to catch up, funny how life just keeps going!)

Anyway, I stayed at the hospital long enough to see my ex-stepfather off on the helicopter. I collected his house key so that his cat could be fed. While I was there I also took a phone call from my brother. He actually lives here too, but was at work at the time and grandma didn't have his work number. My brother is a lot like his dad, minus the abusive side. They even have the same birthday. He was also always a hyper thing, probably he would be diagnosed as attention deficit now days. I love my brother, but I always dread talking on the phone to him (if you ever stumble on this bro, sorry!) because he always finds something to get worked up about. There is always some injustice for him to go on about. I picture him pacing back and forth, working himself into a frenzy. So, when the nurse at the hospital told me he was on the phone, I took a big breath and answered it. He was talking about leaving work so he could come to the hospital; I told him they were about to load him on the helicoptor so there really wasn't any point. Besides, he needed to feed his dad's cat. I told him I would bring him the house key. Ok. He wanted to talk to his dad, so I passed the phone over. After some back and forth and a "no you don't, I changed the locks" from my ex-stepfather, all was settled.

I watched them load him on the copter while I stood in the parking lot, talking to my grandma on the phone. She was frantic about someone going to Indy to be there with him. I told her I would co-ordinate with my brother and sister and we would work something out. I figured some phone calls and I would be off the hook at last.

Back at home I finally got my sister on the phone. I figured by now she had heard. I figured wrong. She had been busy with my niece and was just on her way out the door to a job interview when I called. I filled her in quickly, told her to go to the job interview and call me when she was done. The flight to Indy takes 35 minutes and none of us could get to the hospital that fast anyway. She agreed with a little nudging. Then, after we got off the phone she checked her answering machine and got all of grandma's tearful messages. *Sigh* She called and put off the interview (apparently she really already had the job and it was a formality) and called me back. She wanted to go see him, she had someone who could watch her daughter (almost 3) but her car's air conditioning was out. The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. "I can take our car and pick you up." In my defense, this IS my sister, my BABY sister, and she was obviously in distress. Plus I knew she had never driven to Indy alone and her husband was working and.... crud.

I packed an overnight bag, made arrangements for my daughter to go to her dad's house, my husband told me he could have his mom take him to work in the morning (remember my van, in the shop?) drove to my brother's job and gave him the key to feed the cats and told him to check the mail too, and headed to Attica to get my sister. It is about a 2 hour drive. From Attica, it is about another hour drive to Indy. Coming in a way I have never come in, not even as a passenger. I was expecting to get lost. I had directions, looked up by my husband and given over the phone to me at my sister's house. Amazingly, we did fine, didn't have a problem. Except that gas station we finally stopped at when we were on fumes that had a sign up: SORRY OUR CREDIT CARD MACHINE IS DOWN. CASH ONLY! Darn good thing I made a point of stopping at the Clinton WalMart to use my debit card to buy some snacks and get 40 dollars cash!

We got to Indy, we found the hospital and parked in ye big old parking garage. We made our way through the maze to the Emergency Room, which was where he still was. It turns out that his sister, my aunt (yeah, I claim the whole family still, most of them are really good people, my aunt is an angel) and her husband had come in from Bloomington. Now, you have to know something about my aunt. Years ago, if my math is right about 18 years ago, she was in a car wreck and suffered a broken neck. Doctors said she wouldn't walk again. She was determined and prooved them wrong. She not only walked but she went on to get her Nursing Degree and worked as an RN for a long time. But, she started having some problems about 3 years ago and now she mostly gets around in a scooter. She has a cane and can still walk short distances.

So we walk into the ER and there is my aunt in her scooter by the bed and her husband standing there. I won't bore you with the LONG ER details. Basically, they were not sure what was going on, but his kidneys were not working right and his electrolytes were out of wack. We got there around 7 or 8pm, we switched off stayin with him and waiting in the waiting room till around 11pm (he still didn't have a room and was waiting in a hallway at that point). My aunt said she wasn't comfortable leaving yet, because with his labs so out of wack anything could happen. So, it was decided we would get a hotel room and my sister and I would go sleep till 4am, and then come back and give them the hotel key so they could get some sleep. Good thing we all packed over night bags.

Sis and I ordered a pizza, ate, dealt with another phone call from our brother where I had to talk him down from driving up (really, he would have gotten himself thrown out of the hospital or arrested or something with all his ranting), and then my sister went to sleep. Me, the insomniac? I wasn't able to drift off till after 3. 4 am wake up call. Oh yeah. However I DID get a HOT shower!!! (remember, huge gas bill we are trying to pay off before winter?) We headed to the hospital and found them in the Critical Care waiting room, sleeping on couches and chairs along with all the other worried families. My sister, who can sleep anywhere claimed a couch and a blanket and was softly snoring before long. Me, I camped next to the coffee/cappicino/hot chocolate machine (FREE!!! YUM!!) and knitted by the dim light coming in from the hallway. No sleep for me.

It was nearly 1 pm when my aunt and uncle (? never called him that before, they married long after my mom divorced my stepfather) got there. We established that his labs were getting better and my sister managed to get his car key from him, which meant I could drive straight home, bringing her with me (YAY! a one hour trip instead of a 3 hour trip) so she could get his car, which has AC and would allow her to travel back and forth from Attica to Indy to check on him. Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel for me.

And really, that is the end of that. We came back, she got the car, I came home. I don't mean to overlook my ex-stepfather. He is STILL in the hospital, but out of Critical Care. Could be all the pain medicine he's been taking, combined with his excessive drinking finally caught up to him, could be a really extreme case of gout. They still are not sure. He is probably out of the woods, but still too weak to go home. I check in with my sister now and then to see how things are going.

At home, we have been waging a war with my son (remember, visiting for a month). And that will have to wait for tomorrow because my fingers are tired and well, I don't relish being in tears right now.