When You Can't go Home Again
2008-09-11, 11:16 p.m.

Day OMG, I don't know!!

This is a little "stream of (un)conscious" in content. Sorry in advance.

The straw that broke the camel's back finally showed up at Bob's swinging bachelor pad Thursday morning. Spent the day in the local ER, wondering if we were going to get him admitted to the psych ward.

In the end, the hospital couldn't admit him. He really isn't that bad, and I heard that the psych wing was full. Can you imagine?

The bad news is that his place of residence would rather that he not come back. As a matter of fact, they're insisting he not come back. His acting out, though only verbal in public, has residents afraid.

This morning he was in a rage about things that were "stolen from him", about "people coming in breaking things" and made the mistake of saying that "someone is going to get killed for this".

I think he was talking in hyperbole. By the time I got there (20 minutes after I first heard of this) he was fine, all calmed down. But there were two police cruisers there, and the ambulance pulled in right behind me. We were able to talk him into going to the hospital voluntarily.

The scary, sad part? He has no memory of the tirade he was on this morning. By late this afternoon, he was positive that he was being "treated like a bad boy" (his words), but he was sure he'd done nothing wrong. I described to him what the front desk girl told us he did, and he looked at us like we were martians. Absolutely no recollection of acting out.

We knew the day for Bob to leave his independent living situation was coming. But anticipating it is NOTHING like living it. We've got an appointment to see a place tomorrow evening. We're making arrangements to take care of him ourselves for the next several days. Cindy's brother is pitching in solidly too.

I gotta go get some sleep. Need to do a little work tomorrow, then take a half day to finish filling out some applications for residence at a new, assisted living place or two. Then we have to explain to Bob again and again why it is he can't go back to his apartment. Ever.

Man, that conversation sucks once. Imaging having that talk every 15 minutes - with the same person - but every time for them is just like the first time. That sucks more.

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