I am so unbelievably angry at my brother and worried at the same time..

Just talked to mom, they are taking the breathing tube out today, I won't know how that goes until later...

Keep us updated Kelly, I'll be thinking of him.

Any news Kelly?

Yes, they took the breathing tube out yesterday and the feeding tube out today! He could only have soup and sherbet though. He is talking a little. Sometimes he makes sense and sometimes he doesn't, the doctor said not to worry too much about it just yet, that sometimes that's common...they moved him out of ICU today into a regular room. So he will be OK! Now it's just a matter of taking some time to see if all his faculties are there or not...
I wish I could be down there with my other sisters and parents visiting him, but someone had to take his dog in and take care of everyones households. I have been checking everyone's mail, and all that kind of everyday mundane stuff.
I also have to go tomorrow and start cleaning my brothers place (which is a feat in itself). He is horrible about housecleaning and he is also a packrat, but doesn't really collect anything its more like he doesn't throw anything away, even stuff that is obviously junk (like broken stuff). Then with all that stuff in there he can't even move around to pick anything up even if he wanted to. Have you ever seen the show "How Clean is Your House?" well, his looks like some of the ones on there (not kidding). I am going tomorrow to Lowes to get some garbage bags, face masks, and then to Walmart to get cleaning stuff. I will be going to his place from 10 to 4 and if I am lucky I might get the kitchen clean. I will have to try to go over when I can to work on the rest of it. The problem though is that I cannot go in the day hours during the week because someone has to be home to make sure my dog and his dog don't kill each other and since the kids are at school and Kris at work, that means I can't leave the house in the day hours Mon-Fri. Eventually when he is able to come home, I think I may just tell him, "You know what? You're not really going to be up to cleaning when you come home, so why don't I come once a week and visit with you for a couple hours and help you with the housework?" If I say it that way, then it's not insulting, and that would even give us a few hours a week to visit with each other while I am getting his housework done. He is single with a dog, the housework wouldn't take but a couple hours, but if not done for 2 years (which was the last time mom and I went in and it was bad then too) I would rather go once a week than have to clean what I will be cleaning for the next week and a half....

Things are looking up!! I am so glad!! (((hugs!!)))

Oh I am so happy to hear he is improving, hoping for more good news.

I am really happy too, it could've easily gone very badly and was very close to going that way. For a few days we didn't think he was going to pull out of it...It was very scary. I think that a few good things might have come out of it though. There are 3 girls, me, and I have 2 other sisters and then my brother. One of my sisters lives downstate, we all talk to her weekly and see her a couple times a year. The other sister who lives in town here, married money, and so she really hasn't had anything to do with my brother since then because she is all about appearances and she doesn't like how he lives, and so forth, so she never calls him or visits him or invites him over. I think because of this, she now feels guilty and is trying to make amends, later is better than never though, and it made her appreciate him a bit more. Of all of us girls, I am the closest one to him, I invite him over every holiday and sometimes in between. I talk to him every couple days on the phone and make his birthday cakes and have his birthday party for him every year (since he has never had a wife or kids). Even with all that I found myself regretting not spending more time with him than I do when faced with the thought that he may not make it through. So even though my family is a close family as it is, this has brought us closer together and helped my sister and brother;s relationship get much closer...

I'm so happy to hear that his breathing and feeding tubes are out and that he's out of ICU. That is such wonderful news. Hopefully his disorientation will continue to clear up and he'll make more and more sense. It's also great to hear that there have been good things happen as a result of this crisis. It's hard to keep close to your family even when you get along. Hopefully, he'll make a full recovery and your family will be even closer and more connected than before.

I am glad to hear he is still improving.

Any news Kelly? How is he doing?

Well, it's slow going right now... Dad came up home for 2 days to take care of a few things, he had bloodwork that he had to get done and took care of some paperwork that had to be handled, he is going back down in the morning. Mom is at the hospital and has been there everyday since Vic went down there. He was having some problems talking and mom tried to tell the Dr that she thought his jaw was locked, because its happened to him often over the past couple months, it took an act of congress for her to convince them to x-ray him, and sure enough his jaw was locked, so they put it back and tied a thing around his head to keep him from opening his mouth for a while. The Dr said that is something they cannot do anything about that he will have it happen from time to time and he will just have to have it put back in when it does. Other than that, the Dr's haven't given mom and dad too much info about how long they think he may be hospitalized. He was supposed to have help getting up out of bed for the first time today and maybe walk a bit if he was strong enough. He still needs assistance with things and I think the Dr's may be trying to feel out how quickly/how much he can manage these things before they go guessing what their plan is.

Hopefully he made it out of bed and is gaining strength. Your parents must be saints -- I hope they take a little time for themselves from time to time.

This pic is of my brother's dog that I am watching. He is AKC registered and his name is Wolfman Jack...he's kind of chubby for a chihuahua because my brother feeds him a lot of junk...

He's cute.

I just love dogs, they all have those cute little Grover lips

LOL

I love Grover lips, too!

Well, my brother is now back from the hospital. He should not get sick to the point of where he was again IF he takes his meds. So we are all very happy to have him alive and back, but now the REAL work begins.
He doesn't have insurance so mom and dad paid for his needed medications even though they are on disability themselves, they have been keeping him at their place until we go clean his house, but even then he really shouldn't be on his own. He can't remember which medications to take and when, refuses to clean after himself, and the issues are just too numerous to list. My husband and I gave mom and dad some money, but things just keep coming up that cost money that all of us don't have. His meds had to be paid for, we were lucky with two that were on the Walmart $4.00 deal, the other one was $180.00 for a 3 month supply so mom and dad bought just one month for now. Tomorrow he has a Dr appt that they will have to pay for. Even though everyone is trying to work on getting him Mainecare the Dr's office won't let you have an appt unless you either have ins or plan on paying cash. The list goes on and on, his place is so disgusting that we had to pay to have the garbage guy drop off a dumpster so we can clear his place out, that was $120.00, it's just excessive. My family, and my sisters family have been giving a few dollars when we can, but it doesn't seem like this is going to stop until he can either manage to get disability or something, until then he has absolutely no money. We are hoping if he can manage to get disability then he could get Mainecare automatically, if he could get Mainecare then we are hoping to get him an evaluation through Adult Services to see about some type of assisted living program (he is adamant that he will not do this) but he doesn't really have a choice because his place is falling down around him and mom and dad are in their 60's and can't keep doing this stuff for him, he won't and can't do it for himself. He doesn't even take care of the needed basic things very well, bathing, cooking, etc. So he can't expect to keep living the way he was living and he can't keep expecting one of us to keep doing it for him forever. We will see how it goes, it's going to be a long haul.

I hope the Mainecare goes through for him. Maybe this scare will lead to change. If not there isn;t much you can do shot of having him deeming incompetent. Which will certainly lead to hostility on his part, and likely costly- but it could keep him alive if he can't take those steps upon himself.

I'm happy that he's a lot better, but you have a long road ahead of you. I've had some experience with problems like this and one thing you need to be aware of is that he will probably fight you at every turn. Especially if he has some mental impairment from his illness he's going to have a hard time recognizing that he isn't normal and that he's not doing as well as he should be. Hopefully he will continue to improve until he is able to take care of himself.

I hope it goes thru also. It sounds like he needs assisted living, or homecare. If he is not able/willing to do for himself and cannot be left alone, I agree, he has no choice. Good luck!

I wish you luck. I know how hard it is. My grandparents went broke taking care of my mom after her wreck, and basicly doling out money all her and her brothers lives. So I understand how hard it is for you to watch. (((LOTS of prayers)))))

The longer I watch my brothers dog, Wolfie, (pic above) the weirder I realize he is... There are certain songs if you sing them, he will howl with you...if you sing the right tune but put in different words, he won't sing, so he knows if you are singing them right or not. He "sings" to:

The Lion Sleeps Tonight
I Can See Clearly Now
He Stopped Loving Her Today

He also dislikes certain words/things...

we have discovered by almost getting our noses chewed off that you cannot say the words
macaroni
kiss
peek a boo

if you say any of these words he snaps and snarls and bares his teeth...

LOL! I wonder what happened to cause that reaction?? But I love a dog that sings.

I am thinking for these reasons

macaroni- my brother has probably fed this to his dog one too many times and Wolfie probably associates the word with the food, he doesn't feed Wolfie dog food

kiss- I think my brother tries to kiss Wolfie near his face area, and Wolfie doesn't like people being right in his face, so once again I think he associates the word with the action

peek a boo- I think my brother may have played peek a boo with him and he doesn't like it at all

I wish I had high speed internet, I have a video clip of him "singing", his favorite song of those 3 is the Lion Sleeps Tonight, though I think there may be other songs he likes that we have not discovered yet.

That's a strange critter.

My dogs won't eat Banana's, my cats both eat and love pineapple. Animals are odd....just odd