My older brother, James, is 24 going on 25. He was born with a chronic degenerative metabolic defect that doctors still haven't diagnosed. He has seizures every few minutes, and has for years; he eats through a g-tube; he can't talk or communicate in any really specific way (although he does smile when he's happy and look like a grumpface when he's not. I guess that counts as communication?).
In September 2009, he fell at his day care and broke his hip, at the ripe old age of 23. He had a hip replacement, and was able to walk shortly afterward, but then the pain medication they put him on caused some adverse reactions that required a few surgeries and a long hospital stay. One of the reactions was an hours-long seizure that left his left hamstring in a permanent contracture. Needless to say, he hasn't been able to walk since. In recent months, he's stopped bearing weight on his other leg, either, so my darling flamingo brother has even left his flamingo days behind. He still goes to his same day care, in his giant wheelchair, and then he comes home and watches TV from a hospital bed until he goes to actual bed.
James's life expectancy is short. Pretty much every single year, doctors say that he has one more year, or a few more months, to live. They've been saying that for, oh, about 24 years, so we don't really listen to them on that count anymore. Still, recently we put James on hospice, which has been amazing. We are so grateful for hospice! As hospice itself says, it's really not a service for everyone (which is a pretty good thing, when you think about it). But for the people it's meant to serve, it's fantastic.
We don't know how much longer he'll be with us, and to be honest, we're all praying that it's not too much longer. He's in pain, and there's not a ton of hope that that will change, and we believe in Jesus Christ and the power of His grace through the Atonement and the Resurrection. I know that while my brother's life on earth requires him to suffer, one day he will be blessed with a perfect body, through the grace of Jesus Christ, and that he and I will be able to rejoice in our relationship as brother and sister forever.
I don't often think about that, because it usually makes me cry, but I really do cherish that knowledge. It is so amazing to me that through Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness, my brother and I--along with my other siblings and my parents--can be reunited someday, and that my brother will finally get to know the joy of having a body that functions. I am so excited to hear him speak for the first time, and to hear him sing. He's always loved music and I'm sure that he's inherited some of the musicality of my father's side. Sometimes when a song comes on TV, he'll tap his toes to the beat, even despite the pain in his legs. This is a guy that loves music. It will be so cool when he can actually dance.
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