Health Updates, But Not MIne.
Hoyboy, this is going to be a long one.
You remember my brother was sick, right? Well they finally figured out what the problem was. He had a vasectomoy two years ago and something in there got pinched and - TMI Warning - the semen was backing up and suddenly he had two 10 centimeter cysts and then they hardened up and so draining wasn't even an option. He had the surgery to remove them on Thursday, but it will be a long painful recovery, at least three months before he can care for The Niece by himself.
Sis and I paid for The Niece to be at her aunt's daycare for the sumnmer and she agreed to take The Nephew for free because kids 7 and over who are related to you don't count against your numbers. That got them through the build up to the surgery and now my dad is paying for the kids to get babysat by a woman who lives close by, who is a stay-at-home mom that agreed to take the The Niece all day and The Nephew after school. And Sis-In-Law took four days off post-surgery and then they have a neighbor who does home health care that agreed to come check on my brother like 3 times a day for the first week for a cheap price, so that's good.
But in the meantime, the place Sis-In-Law works got sold to another company and they demoted her, made her switch from salary pay to hourly pay and their insurance coverage changed from 80/20 to 60/40. Plus, they messed up big-time and registered all of their employees with the tax filing of 'single with no dependents' when 70% of their employees are adults supporting their families on these paychecks like Sis-In-Law. (won't say which fast food place, but it's a major one, so let's dispel the notion that fast food workers are largely pimple-faced teenagers earning cash for prom doing an easy job of simply flipping burgers, which is such a fucking understatement of their job requirements). So she's looking for another job, but in the meantime, they were switching over insurances and it got all screwed up and they got slapped with like 10k in bills because they were trying to squeeze in stuff before their new crappier insurance kicked in, but then the old insurance refused to cover them and the hospital almost wouldn't do Brother's surgery because they couldn't prove they had insurance and they spent the week leading up to the surgery doing nothing but fighting with the insurance company and the hospital. They finally got the 10K covered, but at one point my Sis-In-Law was in our living room just sobbing. It's been pretty awful.
Anyways, we took The Nephew this weekend, post Brother's surgery, to help keep the house quiet for him. Was a fun weekend for me, as I had TN at my side the whole time - but my poor sister did not get to enjoy him all that much...because on Thursday, my mom tripped while walking the dog and shattered her shoulder in six places. They have to do a joint replacement.
Mom pulled out her cellphone and called 911, then called my aunt to come take the dog, as she was holding onto his leash still - (he's such a good boy it would never occur to him to leave her side anyways) - and then called me, all while laying on the sidewalk. Sis went to the ER where they splinted Mom's arm, scheduled her to see the surgeon the next week, kept her overnight and then sent her home in the morning - my 67 year old chronically ill mother, they sent her home. By Saturday morning, Mom said her ribs hurt so bad that she thought she had busted them too and she couldn't even sit up without screaming pain, so Sis called 911 again. They said it was the way she was wearing her arm splint, pushing against her ribs, so they fixed it and sent her home...again. But Sis insisted she come to our house, so she was here all day and night on Saturday. Those of you that know my relationship with my mom, know the thought of her having to stay with us until the surgery was frightening to say the least. But I was on Nephew duty all weekend, so I didn't see her that much and TN was super helpful, bringing her things and checking on her. Sunday morning at 6am Sis went to give Mom her morning pain pills and Mom thought she was having a heart attack, so we called the ambulance again. (Sis woke TN up and asked if he wanted to get in bed with me and go back to sleep and he was so chill about the ambulance by that point that he was like, "Nah," and just started playing video games while the paramedics were here). They said she had fluid on her lungs - big surprise that a chronically ill elderly woman would get fluid on her lungs after being laid up for three days - and had a heart arrhythmia, that turned out to be from the trauma and pain. But they finally agreed to keep her.
She is in surgery as we speak, getting a shoulder replacement. She will stay in the hospital for a few days and then transfer to a temporary rehab facility - prob the same nursing home my grandpa was in, which I really liked, but in the other wing where the temp patients go. And then home health care and home PT for two weeks after she gets home. And three months of PT total for her recovery and, knowing her, she'll probably pick going to the same place I go for PT, which will make my head explode, but at least she doesn't have to stay with us!
Omg, this was so long, but my family, wtf!
You remember my brother was sick, right? Well they finally figured out what the problem was. He had a vasectomoy two years ago and something in there got pinched and - TMI Warning - the semen was backing up and suddenly he had two 10 centimeter cysts and then they hardened up and so draining wasn't even an option. He had the surgery to remove them on Thursday, but it will be a long painful recovery, at least three months before he can care for The Niece by himself.
Sis and I paid for The Niece to be at her aunt's daycare for the sumnmer and she agreed to take The Nephew for free because kids 7 and over who are related to you don't count against your numbers. That got them through the build up to the surgery and now my dad is paying for the kids to get babysat by a woman who lives close by, who is a stay-at-home mom that agreed to take the The Niece all day and The Nephew after school. And Sis-In-Law took four days off post-surgery and then they have a neighbor who does home health care that agreed to come check on my brother like 3 times a day for the first week for a cheap price, so that's good.
But in the meantime, the place Sis-In-Law works got sold to another company and they demoted her, made her switch from salary pay to hourly pay and their insurance coverage changed from 80/20 to 60/40. Plus, they messed up big-time and registered all of their employees with the tax filing of 'single with no dependents' when 70% of their employees are adults supporting their families on these paychecks like Sis-In-Law. (won't say which fast food place, but it's a major one, so let's dispel the notion that fast food workers are largely pimple-faced teenagers earning cash for prom doing an easy job of simply flipping burgers, which is such a fucking understatement of their job requirements). So she's looking for another job, but in the meantime, they were switching over insurances and it got all screwed up and they got slapped with like 10k in bills because they were trying to squeeze in stuff before their new crappier insurance kicked in, but then the old insurance refused to cover them and the hospital almost wouldn't do Brother's surgery because they couldn't prove they had insurance and they spent the week leading up to the surgery doing nothing but fighting with the insurance company and the hospital. They finally got the 10K covered, but at one point my Sis-In-Law was in our living room just sobbing. It's been pretty awful.
Anyways, we took The Nephew this weekend, post Brother's surgery, to help keep the house quiet for him. Was a fun weekend for me, as I had TN at my side the whole time - but my poor sister did not get to enjoy him all that much...because on Thursday, my mom tripped while walking the dog and shattered her shoulder in six places. They have to do a joint replacement.
Mom pulled out her cellphone and called 911, then called my aunt to come take the dog, as she was holding onto his leash still - (he's such a good boy it would never occur to him to leave her side anyways) - and then called me, all while laying on the sidewalk. Sis went to the ER where they splinted Mom's arm, scheduled her to see the surgeon the next week, kept her overnight and then sent her home in the morning - my 67 year old chronically ill mother, they sent her home. By Saturday morning, Mom said her ribs hurt so bad that she thought she had busted them too and she couldn't even sit up without screaming pain, so Sis called 911 again. They said it was the way she was wearing her arm splint, pushing against her ribs, so they fixed it and sent her home...again. But Sis insisted she come to our house, so she was here all day and night on Saturday. Those of you that know my relationship with my mom, know the thought of her having to stay with us until the surgery was frightening to say the least. But I was on Nephew duty all weekend, so I didn't see her that much and TN was super helpful, bringing her things and checking on her. Sunday morning at 6am Sis went to give Mom her morning pain pills and Mom thought she was having a heart attack, so we called the ambulance again. (Sis woke TN up and asked if he wanted to get in bed with me and go back to sleep and he was so chill about the ambulance by that point that he was like, "Nah," and just started playing video games while the paramedics were here). They said she had fluid on her lungs - big surprise that a chronically ill elderly woman would get fluid on her lungs after being laid up for three days - and had a heart arrhythmia, that turned out to be from the trauma and pain. But they finally agreed to keep her.
She is in surgery as we speak, getting a shoulder replacement. She will stay in the hospital for a few days and then transfer to a temporary rehab facility - prob the same nursing home my grandpa was in, which I really liked, but in the other wing where the temp patients go. And then home health care and home PT for two weeks after she gets home. And three months of PT total for her recovery and, knowing her, she'll probably pick going to the same place I go for PT, which will make my head explode, but at least she doesn't have to stay with us!
Omg, this was so long, but my family, wtf!