much badness
My brother called me tonight.
"I just had a very emotionally draining dinner with mom" he began.
I assumed it was more of her usual shenaniganery. No. It was this. My mother treated this man. Although I keep my name (and hers) off this blog, since it's a criminal investigation I'm guessing I'm probably not supposed to say more than that about the details on that end which my brother related to me after hearing about it from our mother - so I won't.
However, I am concerned for my brother, who lives with her. Our mother's been through bad stuff in the ER berfore but it used to be if something horrific like this happened, she would deal with it through her counselor Dr. Jim Beam or his associate Mr. Jack Daniels. Our mother quit drinking, wow something like 9 years ago. Sometime between February of 1997 and Spring of 1998. It's hard to pin down because it was after I moved out and since quitting has been what is sometimes called a "dry drunk". She did not do rehab, counseling, or therapy in her divorce from the bottle. Her last patient who rattled her on this level was a very determined suicidal, psychotic young man. That was when she was still drinking. And boy did she drink. And boy did she not get any help to work through dealing with the trauma of the event. And boy did we all pay for that.
3 comments:
OMG. Did she know what he'd done at the time she'd treated him?
Yes, that's part of what made it so difficult. She's a rotten mother but not a bad nurse, and she's been a nurse forever. If I were the nurse manager or charge nurse in a situation like that, I'd put my veteran on that kind of patient too.
Wow. Talk about an ethical dilemma. Your job as a health care professional is to give the best possible care to everyone who comes through the door, no matter how loathsome. I can understand why such a job would drive someone to the brink (although I'm very sorry to hear that your mom dealt with it with alcohol and that it meant you grew up with an alcoholic mom). :-(
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