Hi. I went home for the weekend and it was a doozy, and the fact my parents don't tell me things when they should is still a problem.
I found out this weekend that my Dad's little sister (47 years old) has a major ongoing heart disease that results in sudden severe tachycarida. Weekend berfore last, she had an attack and was hospitalized. I may have screwed up the names of the meds on this, hopefully not. They gave her Denison (?), "slammed" it, which basically stops your heart. That fixed it, but earlier this week she had another attack and two "slams" of Denison had no effect. At one point her heart rate was 160 beats per minute. They put her Cardrazin (sp?) and it cleared up. But this time she also had chest pains. The checked heart, but the don't know they cause, and they have found a faulty valve in her left ventricle. There is also a free flap of tissue that can only be repaired through open heart surgery, so they are leaving it alone. She has two little grandbabies who love her to death and I don't want to lose her. This on the same side as my Aunt who is now severly brain damaged in the nursing home.
I also learned from a neighbor before my parents told me my younger brother almost died Wednesday. He drank himself into alcohol poisoning and almost choked on his own vomit. His "friends" said they didn't realize he was that drunk. The only thing that saved him was he passed out with EMT's nearby because the hospital was across the parking lot and a sober stranger realized how bad he was. He was on a respirator with every tube they can put in you because they were afraid he wasn't getting enough oxygen. They pumped a massive amount of hard liquor from his stomach, and he had a blood alcohol level of 2.93. He is 18. My parents were beside themselves, especially my Dad who was afraid he was going to be brain damaged like my aunt, but my brother seems to be fine and is on antibiotics just in case he gets pnuemonia from the vent. My Mom said when they couldn't give him the phone (against the law because he is 18) to talk because he couldn't talk, she had never been so scared. Our cars are trashed, and they considered coming to get my car because theirs couldn't make the trip. They borrowed the car of my aunt with the heart trouble to get there. My Mom is so heartbroken to leave him with those same "friends". He didn't even bother to call this weekend like he promised them until the called him first and left a message.
Speaking of cars, driving home this evening I hit a deer and smashed up our only good car, because the two at home are raggedy and the last is still in the shop from when my was T-boned by that pick-up in October. I'm okay, I had my seat belt on. I hit that big buck pretty hard; the folks at the gas staion half a block away heard the hit over the TV. The airbag deployed and busted, so my lungs hurt from the fumes and I have rashes on my arms. The radiator is shot, but it's fixable. It could have been bad. My Mom has always told me never to swerve to miss a deer, so I slammed on the breaks; in the other lane was oncoming traffic, and the side of the road sported a telephone pole I stopped a foot short of beside the road and a straight-down five foot bank two feet off the road. I would have been so hurt. People stopped to help me, which I needed because my car horn was blaring (apparently, the wreck triggered it), and I was gagging on the fumes and powder from the airbag, so I couldn't breathe and couldn't see. People pulled me out of the car and called the police for me. I felt so bad because my parents did not need another problem, although I couldn't miss the deer. And my parents, after all this trauma, my Dad an emotional wreck from my two aunts and my brother, my Mom is not much better but dealing better because she is an RN, but still bad, came to get me to get me back to the dorm, where I am now.
Between all the car bills, mine with limited insurance, the hospital bills from the emergency room and the ICU, we need pray for finances. We also need pray for emotional trouble, especially my poor Dad, who turned 50 last week, and please pray for my brother before he dies because he honestly thought he handled the liquor well before the doctor reminded him being on life support is generally considered a bad thing. He also may lose scholarships and be kicked out of or have to drop out of college.
SUMMARY: (Sorry, I must be venting)
My Aunts mysterious, potentially fatal heart trouble.
My family's fiances and emotional health.
My brother.
Last thing, God watched over my brother I. I felt moved to put my brother on my churches pray list just Sunday, and because of dodging two deer with my Mom driving yesterday, I remembered her rules for hitting deer. I feel blessed and protected, but, obviously we need prayer.