Universal Suckage

A couple of months ago my father broke his leg. He had mobility problems to begin with so it all but incapacitated him. He's doing much better now but still has to use a wheelchair to move around for the most part.

This precipitated my sister having to postpone her wedding so that he would be able to attend. It also meant that my mother had to take FMLA leave in order to take care of him on a day-to-day basis.

This would not have been so terrible in and of itself but my aunt, my mother's only sister, who has battled breast cancer in the past, found out that her cancer had returned, it was in several locations, and it was in her bones.

We knew that she was going to be fighting an uphill battle but it turned difficult a lot sooner than we had expected. She was in and out of the hospital shortly after her diagnosis with dehydration and minor infections. To top it off, the meds she is taking for treatment and pain cause her so much confusion it jumbles memories around in her brain.

Turning a little closer to home, several of you already know that I have been having difficulties at work. It all finally came to an end last Friday and I was dismissed. This was not unexpected and I'm actually OK with it. What I'm not okay with is because of the process they followed and the official reason they cited, I have been put on a restricted list. I had to ask twice myself before someone finally explained that it meant I am ineligible for any jobs in the OSU system for at least a year.

Yesterday, I sent an appeal that included a four-page letter and thirty-one pages of supporting documentation. All I asked for was to be removed from the restricted list and to have the official reason for dismissal changed.

I have been trying not to think about it. I have been trying to be patient and let the process work. The problem is that when you put something like that together, you have to think about all of those things that you feel were unjust or incorrect and you can't help but be agitated and it takes a lot of effort not to be angry and bitter (stressful in and of itself).

Earlier this week, my aunt went back into the hospital with a pretty serious infection. The infection did not seem to be related to her other conditions but required immediate and aggressive attention either because of the type of infection or a compromised immune system due to the medications she was taking.

At any rate the infection was not responding much at all to the medication and her kidneys started to shut down. They believe that she had a stroke (or suffered some other type of cerebral event) yesterday afternoon and there was talk of whether she was going to make it through the night.

Besides being her sister, my mother is her medical advocate. Mom was on the phone most of yesterday with family, doctors, and airlines. She caught a 6am flight to Vermont to go be with her family and her sister.

I guess it's a good thing I'm unemployed for the moment because that means I am available to assist dad until my sister, who was planning on coming up next week for just that purpose, can take over.

Injury, unemployment, illness, and stress. I just figure the universe is getting all of our family suckage out of the way in one concentrated burst.