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This morning at 10AM I called mom's hospital room, and stepdad answered the phone. He told me she would begin a soft-food diet, and later in the day, she would be moved from critical care to a regular hospital room. He also said that she may be going home tomorrow. I then spoke to mom, and I immediately felt free of guilt for not seeing her – she sounded as if she had just woken from a 100-year sleep and shot a syringe full of methadone. She had difficulty understanding me, and I could barely piece together her slurred words. If I had visited her today, I doubt she would've been coherent enough to acknowledge my presence.

Later, sister calls me to update mom's situation. She obviously hadn't been told that I spoke to mom and stepdad 30 minutes earlier. And this is when things get really fucked up. She claims that the reason mom has been in critical care since Friday morning is because she's been suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms. She says that mom is delusional, unable to answer a simple math question asked by a doctor: what is 100 – 7? Sister claims mom insisted the answer was 97. Hallucinations have been troubling mom, sister told me. She claimed she saw her attempt to give an invisible hospital form to an invisible nurse. Sister says on Saturday she spoke to a nurse who informed her that that the odd behavior she witnessed was attributable to severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome, and her symptoms should subside in 2-3 days.

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Just got a call from sister. Now, apparently, mom's behavior is not associated with alcohol withdrawal syndrome but brain damage. I don't know what the fuck is going on right now. My conversation with sister was bizarre. She discussed preparing for an intervention for mom. She then proceeded to tell me she, she being sister, has been sober for "nearly a year." I talked to her for nearly 30 minutes, during which she repeated many things. And then her husband, of whom I don't have much of a relationship, got on the phone and told me sister has been clean, he's been watching her closely, making sure she isn't doing drugs.

I'm so lost right now.

xx