Thursday, January 22, 2015

Curse of the In-Laws

My family loves my wife's family, and I think the feelings are mutual. But we seem to have picked up a curse. Now every time a member of one family visits the other, a terrible medical crisis must occur. It started last winter when my parents arrived in Florida just as Rhonda and were hospitalized with mega flu. Then when Rhonda's sister and brother-in-law visited, bro-in-law had to go to the ER with creepy chest pains (which turned out to be nothing, thank goodness). I kept the tradition up by arriving at my New England in-laws' this winter with a bad cold that segued into an abominable vomiting thing that forced me to delay my flight home. The worst came last week when my parents drove down to Florida from North Carolina. This time is wasn't Rhonda and I who got sick, but my mom. Her appendix burst on the first night here and we had to rush her to the hospital in dire condition. Fortunately, Dr. Brockman at North Collier Hospital diagnosed it and operated pretty quickly, probably saving her life. Still, I'm sure it was a bummer for my mom to be laid up uncomfortably for days in the hospital when she would have been swimming under the palm trees.

 photo IMG_6597_zpscrpakkhx.jpg

Let's hope this is the last of it.

3 comments:

Catherine said...

There is good argument for substituting the word "Blessing" for "Curse". I can think of no better time to cope with calamity than when surrounded by family. I am immensely grateful for the loving care given to me here by my son and daughter-in-law after my appendectomy.

Anna Douglass Ojanen said...

When I told Ahuva about mom's appendectomy, she immediately said, "Thank goodness James is there with her!" I thought to myself, "James? What good is James? He is not an MD!?" Still, Ahuva insisted that with medical crises it is more important to be close to family than close to home. Maybe she is sort of right.

James Douglass said...

Yep, I think it was probably better that she got sick in Florida with three people to look after her and a hospital close by than if she got sick at Edisto with just dad to look after her and the hospital an hour away.