When it rains, it pours.

Stepping away from the baby for a day.

I will preface this by saying that our family has been extremely lucky as it pertains to health issues. Eventually the pendulum had to swing the other way. Sure, my step dad and brother in law had heart attacks, but they have both come back very well. My dad has COPD, but he's in his 60s and started smoking when he was 12. Not a huge shocker. He's also been diagnosed for well over 10 years, which is far beyond normal expectancy with COPD. We did lose my father in law a few months ago, but that was not a big shock- his first heart surgery was almost 20 years ago, he also had lung issues, and had been getting recurrent infections. While 77 isn't ancient, it isn't young either (especially for another who started smoking in their teens. Smoking's bad, mmmkay?).

Then a few months ago my grandpa fell. Wait, let me correct that. He "fell". Like an domestic abuse victim falls down the stairs daily. Unfortunately we will never know the true story, but the physical outcome is that he fell days before his 86th birthday and broke his neck. Laid on the floor for 36 hours. In the main hallway of their house. I don't know if he and grandma had an agreement to let the other lay in hopes that they will die or if she was just being her normal cheery self and left him there. Again, we will never know.

After that happened, social services got involved, grandma had to go to assisted living for a while until grandpa recovered a bit, but eventually they were sent home. They were the only two happy about it. Then the stories started rolling in. Grandma was drinking- a lot. She would finish off a bottle and go get more. Grandpa was too weak to stop her and was afraid to tell her no. He was being forced to drive himself to doctor appointments. Bad stuff. So my uncle and mom stepped in and were eventually awarded temporary guardianship (especially after grandma fell- again. It's like the 5th time in 5 years). Step one was to take grandpa to a home. Done. Step two- grandma goes to detox.

Or not. When they arrived, they checked her over. No physical signs of alcohol abuse. Her blood levels tested at zero- if she was drinking at the rate she was being accused of, her levels would never get back to zero. Fantastic. Of course my uncle and mom feel like assholes, but at this point it's 4PM the day before Thanksgiving. They have nowhere to take her. Detox managed to find a way to put her on a 48 hour psych hold due to the dementia that they did find during her testing. But it wouldn't be a permanent thing. It got them through the next couples days until they could get things sorted out.

So now grandma is in assisted living and grandma is in a nursing home. Right now they cannot be together because they just try to plot how to get out (grandpa has dementia as well, so that doesn't help things). By Christmas all kids and grandchildren were banned from visiting because it was just causing too much of a regression every time they show up. Fortunately my step sister happens to be a nurse where my grandpa is, so we are able to easily get updates on what is going on. But it killed my mom that for the first time in her 64 years, she could not see her parents at Christmas.

Meanwhile, the uncle that had been helping my mom with this had other issues. Not only was my aunt having issues and had to have colon surgery last month (she is doing well after that, thank God), but her parents were in a similar position. At the same fucking time (literally- when they left from taking grandma to detox, they had to go start helping with arrangements for her dad's funeral).

But in the midst of this, my aunt and uncle did get a bright spot. My cousin N and his wife C were finally expecting after trying for well over a year, her being diagnosed with diministed ovarian reserve and him with poor sperm count. This will be their first grand child (this would be the aunt the was going nuts buying me stuff earlier, so you can imagine how she is doing with this baby!). They got through the first part of pregnancy with no problems, and finally things were looking up.

Until C got her blood tests back last week(not the baby's, hers- she has had some medical issues in the past). She has cancer (I didn't even think to ask my mom exactly what). The doctors wanted C to terminate. Her response? No way in hell. Right now she is scheduled for a c-section at the end of April when she will be at 34 weeks. Hopefully this child is as stubborn as his father (N was due on Memorial Day. His birthday is Valentine's Day). If you can spare some thoughts and prayers for them, I'm sure they would take every last one.