A Shitty Year

I have been slacking off posting here because of some family issues.  It has been a truly shitty year for me and my relatives.  One family member died in August after years of illness, another family member is the final stages of lung cancer, and yet another family member has just gotten a kidney transplant and is the daughter of the family member who is dying of lung cancer. She is also the widow of the relative who died in August.   It has been horrible.  All these people I have known for years or all my life are sick or are dying off, and it isn't going to be any better as the years go by.

My niece is staying here

I feel better when I see the lung cancer relative, who is a sister of mine and lives with another sister, who is her primary caregiver.  Both sisters are much older than I am.  The terminally ill sister is 79, while the other sister is 83.  Everything is taken day by day.  She has good days and bad.  Yesterday I saw her, and the other sister thinks that she is still alive because of her daughter, my niece, who is up in Portland because she is the one who three weeks ago received a kidney transplant.  However, she had to go back to the hospital last week as she had a bowel obstruction likely due to the medication she is taking for the new kidney.  She has to stay in the hospital until she can go to the bathroom again.  God damn it, it is just one worry after another.  She had a tearful visit with her mother before she left three weeks ago because of the realization she may never see her mother face to face again.  They have been on Facetime, and my niece, speaking from her hospital bed, told my sister, who is in a hospital bed provided to her by Asante hospice, how she is doing.  It is sure a great invention to be able to converse on the phone yet be able to see who you are talking with.

Thanksgiving is going to be rough.  All the family who can make it will be here to visit.  I hope my sister will live at least a few weeks longer.  The hospice people said last week to my caregiver sister that she may have two weeks to live.  However, that is just an estimate.  She is still drinking fluids, didn't cough once yesterday, and was even eating.

I am not going to put any kind of Christmas decorations up this year.  I just don't have a whole lot to celebrate.