family matters

catastrophe part 1: the situation

There’s nothing more stressful than a good old fashioned family catastrophe. Seeing as my family seems to have these all the time, it was reassuring to witness how ineptly our family friends dealt with an horrific situation recently thrust upon them.

We have known this family our whole lives. Mum met W in the hospital when they were having me and W and R’s second child, V. They moved to Melbourne when I was 12 but we have still kept in close touch and spent every summer together on the central coast until V and I were about 18. They are great people. But, like our family, they’re pretty intense, which I suppose is why we all get along so well.

The third child and baby of the family is a guy called A, who is Lou’s age. He moved to Sydney about 5 years ago for work so we see each other quite a bit, usually with his girlfriend, L. A is a good-looking guy who has his shit together professionally, is lots of fun to be around, lives a clean-as-a-whistle lifestyle and is very sporty. However, he is also a major mummy’s boy. He’s had consecutive girlfriends, most of whom have been completely ditsy and needy and hated by his mother. His most recent girlfriend L is not only a winner by comparison, but a lovely, smart and gorgeous girl in her own right.

A, L and W were up at the beach house on the central coast (still in its circa 1982 condition) a couple of weekends ago. W was up from Melbourne for a week and the weather was good, so they spent most of the time at the beach. On the saturday A came out of the water after a three hour surf session complaining of a headache. He went back to the house and went to bed early, but when he woke up the next day he had a sore neck and wasn’t any better. About 4 years ago he’d had similar symptoms and it turned out to be meningitis. He spent a week in hospital and almost died. So as you can imagine, his mother was particularly sensitive to his symptoms on this recent occasion and took him straight to Gosford hospital, where he was immediately admitted. He spent the next 48 hours in intensive care not knowing where he was, who his mother and girlfriend were or what was wrong with him. At points he was convulsing and at others he was close to coma.

Fast forward to Wednesday. He finally recognised his loved ones and doctors felt he was in the clear. An MRI revealed he had encephilitis, an inflammatory cerebal condition not dissimilar to meningitis. But they had caught it in time and the doctors were confident A would fully recover if he rested and took it easy. He was told he’s not allowed to work for a week or drive, surf or drink for a month. Problem was, A had no real concept of what had happened and didn’t comprehend how serious it was. He felt okay but had moments where he couldn’t find the right word or forgot what he was doing. By this time sister V and father R had arrived from Melbourne so they all took A back to the beach house to recuperate.