My life the past week, and especially in the past few days, has taken quite an interesting turn.
So, about the beginning of July my brother, who is a young growing teenage boy, stopped wanting to eat. Now, mind you, he normally eats the whole house out of food. He does not want to share any of the food that is placed on the table, and my sister feels like she never gets enough food because my brother eats it gone before she can finish her firsts. My brother adores burgers, yet on the 3rd and 4th, he would not hardly touch them. He finished one burger, but normally he eats three. We were all confused, but my sister was enjoying it.
After a few days, though, the situation switched from confusing to a big deal. Over the past few days we had not stopped to guess what was going on with my brother. Were he taste buds changing? Did he have COVID (though he had no respiratory issues)? We had no idea what to guess.
Yesterday was when things really changed. My brother had been expressing that he had chest pains, his eating habits were not getting better, and when my mom chose to weigh him he had lost 17 pounds in just six days. My mom was getting really concerned. We had no idea what it could be. So, she set up a "Tela-health" appointment for that afternoon. The appointment went well, but the doctor had no advice on what Mark (my brother) could have either. So, the plan was for us to take him to the in-person office the next day. Then, right before dinner, Mark lost his lunch. I hope you understand what I mean because I would prefer not to word it any differently. He got sick to his stomach. He was sitting at the couch, and he was at first too weak to even make it to his room. After about half an hour he was able to make it to the comfort of his bed, but he was not doing much better. The rest of the night he was able to rest really easily and was asleep hours before he normally would be. But, before he went to bed he asked for toast for his dinner. My brother has always seemed to not live for anything other than food for the most part. I don't think he has ever skipped a meal in his life. Based on the paper plate I saw when I got up this morning, he was not even able to finish his toast last night. While Mark was in bed, an idea popped into both my parent's and my head- what if he had appendicitis! Of course, it too was dismissed because it was unlikely for his eating habits to change in those cases.
Last night, Mark threw up what he had eaten for dinner at 4 a.m. this morning. He still wanted breakfast, though, and because we had it leftover and mom had made it for him the night before thinking he was going to eat it for dinner, he had a bowl of pasta- his favorite side dish. Yet, Mark was well enough for him to get into the car and go to his in-person appointment this morning.
About lunchtime, when my dad normally comes back for his lunch break, he was in a hurry and called my sister and I to his room to talk with us. As he packed up a bag for himself, he told us that Mark was being sent to the hospital about two hours away (because his in-person appointment was at a clinic) and he would probably have to stay there for about four days. My brother has Type 1 Diabetes. His case is an emergency, so my parents had to rush him to the hospital.
My life has been changed. My brother had two meals which was exactly the opposite of what he needed. He needs to avoid starch and sugars because his body now can't keep up. While I am no doctor, so I have no real understanding of if he did this to himself or not, my brother practically lives on sugar and starch so I am not too surprised. Yet, it did still come as a shock. This will affect the way my family lives from now on. I am about to leave for college, so in just a few months my family is going through two major changes. Because of this new development, all of our plans have changed for the next few weeks.
My life has just been changed forever.
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