The latest

Wow. I had this whole post drafted up yesterday about my mother-in-law. Here's an excerpt:

Ugh, MIL. You guys, I am being a total baby, but I want to cry.

Yesterday everything was better with her. She came over to our house. Got all moved out of her rental. I saw her for about 45 minutes after I got home from yoga. She was cool. Chill, a little bit wiped out energy-wise, but that is very common for her. Big lulls in energy.

This morning, I heard her up before me. In the kitchen. I rushed to get ready for work. On my way out the door, she came out of her bedroom. Shit, I thought. I wanted to make it out without having to deal. She asked me if I had any Benadryl. She sounded weak and dramatic. I told her no, but Gelson's at the bottom of the hill would have some for sure. And I was out.

Well, what continued was that she really wasn't feeling well. Went to wake H up. He took her to Kaiser. They ran a bunch of tests on her. She was severely dehydrated and also severely anemic. Like whatever is considered low hemoglobin, she was WAY below that. Iron supplements weren't going to cut it, so they scheduled a blood transfusion. And a number of scans - CT scan, etc - to determine what was the cause of this insane anemia.

I felt terrible. I mean, poor woman. Clearly not doing well. But, I will selfishly admit, I was also totally bummed out. How does this happen the day before she is supposed to leave? There is some sort of psychosomatic thing going on with this lady. It would be one thing if she was a totally normally functioning person, who got sick at the end of her visit. It happens. But with her, there is some catastrophic drama on a daily basis. It's freaking exhausting. And right when we were going to get a reprieve, BAM, she's back. And she's living with us again. Shit.

I kept my personal vent session to myself (and my mom and my sister - thank god for family you can confide in). H spent most of the day at the hospital with her. I talked to H's brother, who also thinks his mother is over the top. I think he sees his mother for what she is, so while concerned about her, he was also just worn out and disappointed.

I got home in the evening, and H was here with our little nephew (H's brother's son), Jeremy. H's brother was at the hospital to give H a break for a while. H left soon after I got home to go bring his mom things for the night, as she was being admitted (a blood transfusion is a long process that has to be carefully monitored). At about 9pm, H's brother came back to pick up his son. And check this out. They ran a second hemoglobin test on MIL, I suppose as a control method to ensure the original results were correct. Totally normal hemoglobin levels. WTF?? So they ran a 3rd test. Totally normal hemoglobin levels. So either the 1st result that morning was improperly labeled as hers, or she has some wacky shit going on in her body.

BIL totally poured his heart out to me - about how tough it is for him having his mom here. He works from home, and with her being just a few minutes away, she calls him with things on a daily basis. And they aren't things like "Honey, I baked some cookies for you", or "when you have a chance, I could use your help with something." They are serious, dramatic, over-the-top panicky requests. Basically, the woman has a serious anxiety problem. She needs medication. I'm convinced. She thinks she is all hippie-fied, self aware, enlightened.... and I think it's a whole crock of shit. She is the most self-unaware person I know. She has no idea how she affects other people, and she has no consideration for what other people are going through when she gets into one of her freak-outs. I don't think she does it on purpose, but this is clearly a mental condition. She gets herself all panicky, like a serious panic attack, and it affects her health. Doesn't insane amounts of stress affect everyone's health?

So anyways, she'll come home today (they still kept her overnight, probably for safekeeping), and hopefully H's brother can arrange a flight for her on Monday. But holy shit, talk about issues. I need this woman out of my life.