tedwords

You ever get one of those days that completely turns your world upside down?

(I think I've been watching too much Hamilton...of course "The World Turned Upside Down" was playing in my head as I typed that.)

Wednesday was one of them for me. I had just finished working (and was very much looking forward to Thursday, which would be the start of vacation for me), when my sister-in-law Lisa messaged the family on our "Family Facebook feed": actually, a text message string that includes my brother and sisters and my father, who is not a Facebook fan but uses the group text message to send us a daily stream of photos, in essence accomplishing the same result.

"Tommy is in the hospital. I came home from my trip to find him in our bed and not able to get out. Trying to figure out what is going on."

Naturally, they thought it was COVID-19. But when the doctor took his blood work, he turned a paler shade of white.

It turns out Tommy has acute leukemia.

They didn't know for sure at the time, but it's been verified since then. Friday they took bone marrow out and yesterday they started chemo.

The good news is, they say there is a 90 percent likelihood of recovery (yeah!) But, he will be in the hospital for at least the next five weeks and only Lisa can go and see him.

Yesterday he called me crying, he was in such pain. I've never heard my brother cry before. I would have done the same thing...neither of us are really good about handling these sorts of things. Both of us pass out at the sight of needles...I can't imagine dealing with this.

It's weird to see one of your siblings dealing with something like this. Tommy is the youngest of the four of us. You always think of your nuclear family, particularly those you were once young with, as indestructible, but of course, they are not. This sort of thing is going to happen, and keep happening, and I am not completely sure how to deal with it.

When Tommy called and started crying, I started sobbing. Couldn't stop for about five minutes. He is such a thoughtful, caring guy. Has had so much heartache in his life, but really seems to have found himself in a good place these past few years, with Lisa in his life. In fact, he told me he was dwelling on that with a friend a few nights before this happened: how he had gone to the brink and been pulled back, after his first wife left him. "I jinxed it, Teddy."

No, no you didn't. You will recover from this, Tommy. And we will be there, right by your side.