As a few of you know, I went to Ohio a little while ago to see my sister Vanessa in the hospital. She is dying from complications from diabetes. While there is no date set, she has a few months left to live and I won’t ever see her again. The doctors have never seen a case of gastroparesis as bad as hers. Basically her digestive system has stopped working. She is hooked up to a bunch of tubes for nutrition, medication and excretion. She was in constant pain and, for whatever fucking reason, is on enough painkillers for 20 people (as estimated by the doctor in the new hospital). She is addicted to those narcotics now and it would take a month to wean her off. She could go through a month of agony to gain some mental coherence, or stay in her current relatively pain-free state, but not know what day it is.

She has three young daughters who live with my mother. Her plan is to take care of them as she has been for the past year or so. That is a whole other issue.

I don’t want my sister to die. But she has been sick for a long time and everything has been tried to save her. She doesn’t have a high quality of life right now. She’s been in bed for so long that she can no longer walk.

I’m doing okay. This is always in the back of my mind until something brings it to the forefront. I don’t really want this to be about me. I just wanted to update those of you who were following this and let the rest of my friends know the deal.