Update on my brother (kind of funny)

[Hekate]

Just before Thanksgiving last year it looked like #1 brother was going to die from complications related to COPD. He was in the ICU, home again, then back to the ICU. Sister, #2 brother, and I started preparing ourselves for coast to coast emergency flights over the TG weekend to say goodbye. I did something I've never done before, anywhere, much less at DU: I asked for prayers, and kind words poured in.

Meanwhile, someone at the clinic suggested a deep cleaning of his living space, on the chance that he was getting reinfected there. #2 brother knows the landlady, who's actually a very old friend of #1 brother, and at his request she hired a crew to wade in. Fortunately she also took a few "before" pictures -- because it cost us $1300. Ye gods.

He didn't get sick again. He stabilized. Deep cleaning, siblings, old friends, and prayers....

So here's today's update, straight from #2 brother, and it made me laugh. Sometimes being a cantankerous old coot really is what's called for.

Have either of you (we sisters) been tested? If not then Jay is the first. He called his doctor today (I think it is a nurse-practitioner at the clinic) and told them he has his yearly upper respiratory infection. They sent a "mini-ambulance" for him and strapped him in a wheelchair in the back and trucked him off to the clinic in Depoe Bay, where they tested him for both the flu and Covid-19. They then prescribed him a z-pack and tried to send him home. He did not go quietly and insisted that they stop at the pharmacy so that he could pick up the z-pack. Oh Mr. C__ they said, that is not part of the program! The Oregon Health Plan does not cover trips to your pharmacy! But I will have to walk back from my house to the pharmacy, and it is on the way! After phone calls in transit, they decided to bend the rules, and let him scamper into the pharmacy to get his cure. The driver had to take a break and check the air in the tires, or something.... Well, turns out the doctor called the wrong pharmacy, and they did not have anything for Jay and they would not call the doctor. That apparently is not part of the program either! So he said m'am, I am going to sit in this chair right here until you call them and get this sorted out. I am sick, I need the medicine, and I can't walk home and back as I can't drive any more.

So they did call the doctor, and get it sorted out, and the mini-ambulance took him home, with his cure.

And today, both tests came back negative, so he did not have the flu or Covid-19 when tested, but after the ambulance ride and trip to the pharmacy, who knows......

[samnsara]

1. Great story!

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Ah, family! Well, at least they listened (to your brother)...I don't know if I want to meet him or

not! Just kidding. Glad to hear that he's stabilized, better, and didn't test positive for anything (recently). Take care.

[Hekate]

3. He's interesting, a real character. None of us wants to live with him! That said...

The chain smoking and heavy drinking are a problem -- although I did hear he'd given up smoking after his time in the ICU.

And yet -- There are a small coterie of friends he made in his late teens and early 20s who are still his friends more than 50 years later. I know two women from those times who still love him (from California) and he still loves them (from Oregon). He had charm and to spare.

And oh, can he tell a story. He is a gifted raconteur, and I wonder if that is from our Irish DNA. The first time I ever heard one of the Clancy Brothers sing "The Parting Glass" tears came to my eyes because I knew it should be sung for my brother one day, all wounds healed, all history forgiven.