It's been a tough couple of weeks.
I've spent a lot of it in a hospital room, watching a close family member die.
Except... he's surprised us all, and even after palliative care, he has regained much of his awareness and ability to communicate... so, it has become clear that he will be with us for some time to come... thankfully.
But I, along with everyone else, thought that he would have left us by now.
The 8 hour drive over... the eight hour drive back. Sitting... for hours... in a dark, quiet room, day after day. Watching someone wither away. Listening to their screams as they are turned every two hours. Before the miraculous, literally overnight turn-around, if gives me pause... the things you think about. The reviewing of the bidding. One's own impending mortality.
Being there to help. Knowing that there's nothing you can do.
I went through this once before with my middle brother, who died of a massive stroke at the ripe old age of 53, a stroke he suffered 5 years ago today.
I will have to go through this, or something like it again, when my oldest brother, also a massive stroke victim, finds his time on earth at an end.
The purpose of this post is to, once again, remind the reader to get their blood pressure checked. While my relative's blood pressure is not the cause of his medical problems (He's quite elderly) they were the cause for both of my brother's medical issues.
Properly diagnosed and treated, we'd likely be looking at a far different situation.
Yes, it's amazing what an experience like this can do. Amazing. Kind of a forced introspection kind of thing. And that type of consideration is frequently a good thing.
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