Last Monday morning at 7 a.m. EST, I get a phone call. My body has not adjusted to the time change and thinks it's 4 a.m. My eyes are sealed shut and my brain isn't working. I stumble and fumble to find the phone.
Me: Hello?
Aunt X: M! Are you awake? Aunt Y fell! We are in the Emergency Room. It's bad this time. Can you come here?
Aunt X broke her hip and banged her head hard. She was semi-conscious when I got there. They performed surgery that evening on her despite her advanced age (87) and poor prior condition.
For the balance of these past 9 days, Aunt Y has been in between worlds. Her kidneys shut down and were barely working. She was almost comatose. She ran a fever and was found to also have a urinary tract infection. When she opened her eyes, she couldn't focus. People called her name but she didn't respond.
As her medical proxy, I spent much of the week conferring with her doctor, the case worker and a slew of relatives. I went to visit rehab centers for care in the event she made it out of the hospital. I comforted Aunt X and updated my cousins.
Once she stabilized somewhat, I left the hospital on Friday and drove with T to New York to see Sam and go to his hockey games. We got back at midnight on Saturday and left Sunday morning at 6 a.m. to take Harrison to New Hampshire to meet someone at his first choice college.
Got back Sunday afternoon at 4 and went to the hospital. Get there and my brother Phil and sister-in-law Betsy and Aunt X are sitting in the room. Aunt Y looks even thinner and is still sleeping. It was like a wake.
Me: Has she been sleeping all this time?
Everyone: Pretty much. You try to wake her up.
Me (walking over to one side of the bed): Aunt Y…Aunt Y…hello…are you in there?
Aunt Y (opens her eyes, stares at the ceiling, slowly turns and sees me and says:) Where the hell have you been?
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