SSS

She and I watch a fair amount of television---no reality shows, mostly police procedurals and medical soap operas of the evening variety. Invariably, on a medical show, a surgical candidate goes south with heart stoppage, the OR staff zotzes the patient once or twice, after someone declaims "Patient in V-Tach", and another voice declaims "Normal sinus rhythm." And that's what this post is about.
As I've said from time to time, She is the middle sister of three, a child of an alchoholic father and an abused mother. Her older sister, known to us as The Wicked Witch of The West, was the valedictorian in high school, the cheerleader, the "everything" that She wasn't, She who went out with motorcycle gangs from Polishtown and belched out load at the dinner table. And so She bore the brunt of all the disapproval from the entire family, especially from Her older sister.
Fast forward to the present, where Her sister no longer speaks to her, because She has the audacity to speak with her nephew (known as The Golden Boy, son of the Witch) after mother and son had quarrelled. On a visit to her house about a year ago by both sisters, even the youngest could see who mean and abusive the older was.And so for the last eight months, She and I have had woefully little information about her, except to know that she hadn't been feeling well and was undergoing some tests (her husband, aka Peter Pan, divulges nothing ).
Last Tuesday, before Thanksgiving (to which we had invited the entire family, and to which she never even responded), we found out that she had suffered a seizure, was unconscious for five minutes, was hospitalized, and "not doing well", in some local third rate medical center. Initial test revealed no stroke, no Alzheimer's, no senility, in short nothing to indicate why she had passed out---oh, and did I mention that within the last month, while in traffic on the Capitol Beltway, she had stopped her car in a daze and just wandered off?
Friday, it was relayed to us that she was suffering from Sick Sinus Syndrome, a condition where not enough oxygen is pumped from the heart to the brain, resulting in all the erratic behavior. And so, we are left to wonder, which have gone on for almost a year, a result of this medical issue, or is she just as mean and vindictive as she's been her entire life?
Stay tuned.