Wading Through it All Again

I'm crashing toward one of those "low points" again.  Had a big old fight with one of my sisters this evening.  I was basically told that I was looking at every situation as if it was "about me" and that I needed to "get past my anger" and move on. 

The fight was about my mother's care.  My two oldest sisters have completely taken over this task.  It wasn't that I abandoned my responsibility here.   I was very roughly shouldered aside.  Eventually, I chose to bow out; in fact, I moved two hours away, because I could see that this was the only way that our family was going to achieve even a semblance of peace, after my dad passed away.  Now, when my sisters vent about how much time and effort they have to put into caring for my mom... I'm sorry, but I don't have even a molecule of sympathy for them.  They brought it on themselves.

Unfortunately, Mom suffers from many chronic illnesses, along with several "surprise" problems that most old people I have heard of don't even get.  When my dad was ill, she suffered for months with osteo-myelitis (a very serious staph infection of the bone) before she was finally accurately diagnosed and treated.  Over the past month or so, she has been exhibiting many of the same symptoms that she was back then.  When I pointed this out, and suggested to my sisters that they needed to rock the boat a bit to get her doctor to get on the stick and figure out what is going on, they pooh-poohed me and insisted that she has a great doctor who is doing a fine job. 

A few days later, I get an email telling me that Mom's doctor has finally agreed that there is something going on with her, and that they are going to start running further tests to see if the osteo-myelitis has re-occurred.  Well, duh! 

So  I fired off an email to my oldest sister,  saying that I was happy that the possibility of something serious was being investigated, but that I wished they could have at least acted like they were giving my idea serious consideration.  Instead of sitting on it for several days and then claiming it as their own....   I tried to explain to my sister at dinner that their attitudes towards me are largely dictated by our birth order.  I am the LITTLE sister, so, even though I am middle aged, for God's sake, I can't get credibility in my own family. 

So, yes...the important thing is that Mom's doctor has set in motion a course of treatment that should make her much better within a month's time.  I should be happy, and so I am...about that.  But it makes me just nuts that my sisters can't listen to me when I try to point them toward a better standard of care for Mom.  They act for all the world as if it's none of my business.

Sometimes, I wish I could just FIRE my sisters and hire someone to take their places. Someone who might actually cut me a break and listen to me.  Wouldn't that be novel ?