It Begins

Today, it's not about me. Not directly, anyway. My sister-in-law has been in the hospital, now, for about 4 days--drying out, de-toxing, whatever you want to call it. She has been sedated at times, when the DT's got too bad (she was trembling, seeing things, and talking out of her head), but seems to be pulling out of it now.

And so, it begins.

Getting off of alcohol (and anti-anxiety drugs, tranquilizers, etc.) will just be a small part of her personal battle. She still has to come to terms with her addiction. As we all know, that's going to be the biggest challenge she will face. It will mean she can NEVER again do the things that she has done for her entire adult life "for fun". It will most likely mean that she can never "hang" with the old crowd, again. It did for us. She has finally agreed to go into an inpatient facility to learn to deal with the disease she will have for the rest of her life.. She may go as early as tomorrow, and will be there a minimum of one month--longer if they feel she needs it.

And when she is discharged, I have a strong feeling that the weight of what she has done will come crashing down on her. She has lost custody of her son, crashed and totaled her car (with no insurance--she had let it lapse), doesn't really have a job to come back to, and she will be facing bankruptcy, a lawsuit by the auto loan company to recover what she still owed on her car, and plenty of other financial crises (like child support payments, if her son's father is awarded permanent custody of their son at the hearing scheduled for later this fall).

And no one is talking about it yet, but she will be living here. With her parents, her brother (my recovering husband) , me, and occasionally my college-student daughter. And at some point may have court-ordered visitation with her son

Do the math: There will be five us in a three bedroom house, and occasionally as many as seven.

It going to be quite a challenge for all of us isn't it???