Part Six: My sister's death

I brought my sister home to my house because I wanted to be the one who cared for her and because I cared. At first, she was still feeling welel enough to go to the store or putter around the house. She required daily wound care and her insurance sent a nurse to the house three times a week.  The rest of the time, we were on our own.

Unfortunately, I had to go back to work.  my fibromyalgia pain was more intense than ever.  My mind was continually on my sister.  Her pain was increasing.  She was unable to keep any food down for more than half an hour.

Her friends from Dallas and around the state were driving for hours to come here to visit with her. Some stayed for a few days, others a few hours. My husband saw to her basic needs - get me this - get me that - while I was away.

 After, about three weeks of this, I went to my boss and told her, "what if she dies while I am teaching people to prperly use their daily planers or some other mundane thing?  How will i feel about that?"  So, I took a second family leave.

It is important here to tell you that my company considered these leaves as one continuous period of time off. They used my sick time and vacation time to pay me.  They did not consider a sister as 'family' and therefore, family leave was actually, technically not offered. This is important because later it effected my actual disability leave.

Rachael's condition worsened and she no longer had any output into the colonoscopy bag and vomited up bile every hour or so.  We called hospice. finally, we had found someone who knew what both she and I were going through! They provided a wheelchair, a hospital bed, and stronger, more effective pain control.

One day, my sister woke from a two day sleep to say, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you."  Four laborious times, she repeated the words.  Then, she went back to sleep.  She never woke up again.  62 days from her date of diagnosis, she died.