For the first time in the two years since I moved here to Sydney, I really wish I were back in England.
The younger of my two sisters is in bed, unable to move and in a great deal of pain in her hip and leg.
I’ve just spoken to her on the phone and I could hear actual pain, not just discomfort, in her voice. She’s my baby sister, 10 years younger than me, and I desperately want to make it better for her but I can’t. All I could do is advise her to call a physio therapist for an urgent home visit and hope that they can remedy what her GP and local hospital ER have merely ‘treated’ with entirely ineffective pain killers and muscle relaxers.
That’s the thing about being the eldest: you’re supposed to be able to look after everyone. I should be there. She needs me.
Just because you are the eldest does not mean you can fix everything. Hope she does get the physio, it very well may help her.
Well, at the very least, you can give her good advice and support from wherever you are. It’s not the same, I know … but the quality of love isn’t determined by the distance from which it comes.
My poor darling – and were you there, you’d be running about fixing everything; possibly to your own detriment.
As it is, your advice and love is felt in England just as if you were there physically.
I hope your sis is feeling better. If that was sciatica she was dealing with (the leg and hip description fits), I don’t know if there is much you can do during the acute phase. And yes, it hurts like bloody hell. But, from my experience, the only cure is time.
But, I’m sure your love and concern did help soothe her soul, if not her hip.
healingmagichands – thank you, she did, and it did
David – *pinches “the quality of love isn’t determined by the distance from which it comes.”*
piereth – you’re quite right, as ever. Guilt isn’t helpful really.
LazyBuddhist – I think it may well be sciatica, the poor sausage. And not even pregnant, which would at least be a good reason to put up with it!
turns out to have been a slipped disk. The poor girl has been off work, being ‘nursed’ by our mother for 4 weeks, god help her.