I Hate Hospitals.

”Oh my God!”

That's never a good thing to hear first thing in the morning, shortly after a family member answers the phone. I remember when I awoke to that back in college, and my mom had received the terrible news that, at the young age of 25, her cousin's son had taken ill with leukemia and died very quickly. It was devastating for that family, but life goes on and their daughter went on to get married and have four sons in nearly as many years, naming one after her brother.

This morning it was this daughter who called to tell my mom about her mom. It seems my mom's cousin had been taken to the hospital when, after several days of flu-like symptoms, her husband was unable to wake her this morning. My parents rushed off after my dad's brief “what can you do there?” was dismissed and he knew he'd have to go with her. I waited for news and occupied myself, eating breakfast and then sorting through receipts dating back to 1997. Jerry's advice about discarding the past is sound, but for me it will take baby steps like realizing I won't need a faded McDonald's receipt from nine years ago. The only things I saved from prior to the last two years were major things like DVDs or games or computer stuff, and sentimental things like receipts from museums I visited in college or restaurants I took my ex-girlfriend to.

Time drags during a crisis, and today was very long. My mom finally called with some more details about her cousin's blood sugar being some obscene number like 2500. When I did some research and saw that 150 is normal and 500 causes a diabetic coma, I knew how bad this was. I had planned to do some shopping today to force myself to drive but instead I just drove around locally, just for the air as it was a nice unseasonably warm and sunny day. Eventually my parents came home to eat and I offered to drive them back. As bad as I've been, my dad's night vision is bad.

When we arrived there had been some more developments. My mom's cousin had a broken leg the last few weeks, and by this point they suspected a clot had traveled to her heart and put her on some medication. She's stable and her sugar is down to 500, but the next few hours are crucial. We don't know what's going to happen, and this family could suffer another tragedy, as inconceivable as it is given the one they suffered a few years ago. We're all waiting and praying and there's not much else to do. There's a slew of doctors and nurses all closely monitoring her readings, and she's in good hands. Obviously I only have time for a short entry tonight. I taped 24 but I'm exhausted; I might just go right to bed. Hopefully if a ringing phone does wake me tomorrow, it will bring better news....