During my walk yesterday morning, I was passed by a tall, 30ish fellow, no shirt, jogging. Beside him, jogging at his pace, was a little girl of about 6. They tooled on ahead of me. I was no match for her.

On my way back to my place, I passed the little girl, alone this time, jogging past me toward the road where I had seen them earlier. Her teeth were clamped around the nozzle of a water bottle. She wasn’t holding it. She was focused and determined. This was about 45 mintues after I first saw them. About 3 minutes later, her dad (I guess) came jogging past me. I called out, “if you’re looking for that future Olympic runner, she went thataway.” “I am ,” he said and sailed by.

While out biking later, I was coming out of a side street and saw Don’s car passing on the road ahead. So thinking I could have some alone time with my sis, I made a point of stopping when I got to their street. She was very drained, cold (I wrapped another blanket around her in her chair), less coherent than usual, and kept resting her head on the table. And then I noticed tension bandages strewn around, stained with blood, and the back of her head was red with dried blood including her jaw line and it made me think that perhaps she had bled from her ears. Also she was very flushed. I called Ed (he’s had some medical training), who said I should call 911. But I decided to wait for Don to come back because he really, despite all his faults, is not inclined to ignore her when she is in a bad way.

Meanwhile, I asked my sis what happened, and she said, it’s okay, Don is bleeding too. (!!??) That’s all I could get out of her. I also tried to call him on his cell that he usually always carries, but it went to voice mail. I was holding back the fear that she was on her way out.

Don came home a few minutes later and explained. My sis, who has a whim of IRON, insisted that they both get Life Lifts. So they went and got them. Don looked a bit funny when he came in the door but I didn’t guess. His face was reddish, a bit swollen and he had some bruising. He said that Tu would be okay if she hadn’t ripped off the bandages and peeled away at the sutures. She is apparently unable to control her self-mutilation. (She brutalizes her nails and any skin irritation she might have.) He had already, he said, washed and reapplied her bandages and she had torn them off again and he had called the doctor who had come to their house and then they had all gone back to the clinic to have her sutures repaired, all this at 2 a.m. the preceding night. He’s taking her back this morning, after helping her soak off the blood in the tub. He reassured me and said she was really all right and they would both look fine by next week.

Ed was incensed that the doctor had worked on her after taking her medical history. She has a congestive heart condition and is in constant pain and on painkillers. Life Lift has had its share of unhappy patients suing, so I am not surprised the doctor came to the house at 2 a.m. Some time ago, Tu asked me if I thought she should have a traditional face lift and I said I didn’t think she would be a good candidate because of all her medical problems. So Life Lift, which in its TV ads blethers on about how easy and simple it all is, was apparently her 2nd choice. Still, they do give you an anesthetic that is pretty strong, and I think her head is already messed up. Ed thinks the doctor was irresponsible.

I’ll stop by to see them later today. Meanwhile, I think it’s time something was done about her obsessive-compulsive behavior but I don’t know what.

xx, Teal