So, I never did tell you about what happened to my grandfather. It was right after KC got out of the hospital, but when we realized he was still too sick to go to Sydney. I got a phone call Sunday morning from my mother. It was Father's Day, and it was her mother's birthday, and her father had been rushed to the hospital the night before. The scene she described was like something out of a movie.

Apparently, after a fairly normal day, he started gushing blood from his face. It was coming out of his nose and mouth, and even his eyes. My mom told me he was in intensive care and after they stopped the bleeding, they would work on finding out the cause. She said he filled up both sinks in the bathroom and numerous towels with blood.

I told her I would call my grandmother. If I called her in the next couple of days, I could talk to my Aunt Cheryl and my cousin Michelle*, who were staying with her. But I didn't call. I kept meaning to. I kept telling myself I'd do it in a few hours, when I gained some composure. But, I didn't ever do it. My mother had sounded so shaken up on the phone. She was terrified because she had never heard her own mother sound so terrified. My grandmother may be an alcoholic, but she's a very strong woman, in her ways and considering her generation.

On Monday mom called me at work to tell me to stop worrying. They had found out the cause and he was getting better. What had happened was a combination of things. He has Sleep Apnea. That means he stops breathing when he's sleeping. The diagnosed him years ago, when he stopped breathing about 73 times in the course of one night in the sleep clinic, and he got a mask. He would put the mask over his mouth and nose when he went to bed. The mask would force oxygen into him so he couldn't stop breathing. He also has allergies and high blood pressure. He's been taking pills for as long as I can remember. Well, I guess his first breathing mask put too much pressure on a blood vessel in his nose, or behind it. They had so much trouble finding a blood pressure medication that worked, so when they did, they kept him on it. The result was that his blood pressure would fluctuate a little too much sometimes, but it was the best they could do. He works in a "trailer" park. They call them modular homes. The day of the gushing blood, he was dealing with selling his best friend's home. His friend had recently died. Apparently, his allergy medication made his blood pressure medication less effective. When his blood pressure spiked, the blood vessel burst.

I did return my grandmother's call when she called to tell me he was home. That was Wednesday morning. When I called, my grandpa answered. Hearing the words over again in my head still makes me quiver. "Crystal, it was so scary. I was trying to get the blood stopped, and I plugged my nose. Crystal, I bleeding from my EYE SOCKETS! And I could hear my heart pounding, thudding, inside my head." I cried.

*My cousin Michelle is severely epileptic. When I was in Grade 5, she moved to my part of town and began going to my school. I was taught what to do if she had a seizure so that the teachers could get me from class to stay with her until an adult family member got there. When talking to my mother about Michelle, I would often say I was thankful to not have what she has. I felt bad for her. My mom responded by saying Michelle felt the same way about me. I said I didn't understand. All I had was divorced parents. "Do you mean she wouldn't want to have to go through a divorce like me?" "You could say that, Crystal."

--Sometimes I find it fascinating that there are brain problems in my family, but they are not the same problems. I often wonder if they are somehow connected. I wonder if the doctors and scientists have ever thought about a possible connection between different neurological disorders. Epilepsy, Asperger's, Alzheimer's, delusions of grandeur, paranoia, depression. And that's just one side of my family tree.

This day last year, I was watching the Office series for the first time.