okay, new thought

Okay, done moping on the vast ingratitude of this world.

My mom just emailed me--I guess my brother is doing way way worse. The briefing for those of you who don't know my brother:

1. He's two years older than me (22-almost-23), dying from a chronic degenerative metabolic disorder he's had since birth. He has been the major influence in my political development. Currently, he has had cancer 3 times (and currently still has it), permanent staphylococcus, muscular dystrophy and atrophy, constant tonic and grande mal seizures (we're talking once every 3 minutes since he was 4 years old), esophagal atrophy, severe myopia, and basically everything else you can think of. His rectum is 1200% the normal size (the organ is supposed to be about half an inch long, his is over a foot long). He is on untested doses of nearly every medication he takes. He has never been able to speak and his brain development is about that of a two-year-old's. He's almost died from too many things to name.

But now the problem is his gastric tube.

We took him to a wound specialist a few weeks ago, because the burn from stomach HCl has created a permanent burn around his tube entrance. For the past several years, it's been reasonable; obviously having a stomach constantly bleeding from acid burns isn't cool, but in the past it's been doable. In the past few months, it's gotten worse. The entire tissue around his tube has deteriorated. No one can do anything about it.

My mom is meeting with surgeons today to see if they can do anything about it.

In the meantime, pray we don't get socialized healthcare, and pray that James doesn't have to feel the pain. Please?