(no subject)

My brother Andrew and one of his friends were stabbed last night. Andrew was stabbed in the side. When he got to the hospital he'd lost a lot of blood, was unconscious the whole time and had damage to his bowel which was - apparently - clearly visible from one of the wounds to his side. He spent several hours in surgery last night where they had to open him up from his chest to his stomach to try and ascertain what damage had been done - this is as much as they told his ex-partner. I've no idea how that went or what they've had to do and I'm getting all my information 2nd- and 3rd-hand. I do know that he's now in a serious condition in ICU with a police guard - along with the other boy who was stabbed. He was stabbed in the chest and it didn't look like he'd pull through, although he has apparently made it through the night. I know too (from my cousins) that they had the whole of New Milton cordoned off last night and have only picked up one person so far, though they don't know if he's the stabber. My aunt was saying it's not on the local news at all, but she thinks that's because they're trying to keep it low-key until they find who they're looking for.

Obviously I've had pretty much no sleep and I'm just trying really hard to hold it together as my youngest brother is here with me this weekend. I am basically just distracting myself as best I can right now, because when I start thinking about it I cry and worry myself stupid. Not knowing anything is awful, and I'm just constantly waiting for the phone to ring. So - depending on what happens today - you might either see me doing lots of random online worky stuff to keep me fully distracted - which I know may seem strange but I've learnt the last few months that when I'm totally stressed out about stuff, that working to the exclusion of everything else actually helps - or I might just go AFK altogether. I'm sure a lot of this post is incoherent but until I know more, I don't know what else to do.

*hugs hard*

Thank you x

I'm overwhelmed by all your comments and kind words to my last post about my brother - I cried and smiled in, I think, equal amounts - thank you so much, it means more to me than I can say. I wish I could thank you all properly but really, I wouldn't know how right now, so please know how much it means to me. I'm sorry I've not managed to reply today - I'm a bit of a mess actually - and I thought it might be easier if I did another post now and let you know how things are.

I've just got off the phone with Lyndsey (Lyndsey is his ex-girlfriend and mother of his 5-year old son) and my aunt - Lyndsey went to see him this afternoon. The operation went okay but they have had to remove part of his bowel. He lost a lot of blood before and during the operation and has had transfusions and is all wired up to stuff and is having to use an oxygen mask, and obviously he's pretty out of it on morphine as it was a pretty big operation. He's not allowed anything to eat or drink for a while and only a tiny amount of water each hour as they have to see that everything is going through his system as it should. They're fairly sure the operation was a success and their main concern right now is internal bleeding so obviously they're monitoring him pretty closely.

Lyndsey said he has staples all down his front where they opened him him up from his chest to his stomach to try and find any other damage and that the doctors have said he was extremely lucky. I really, really want to go see him this evening but right now I'm a bit of a mess - shock and tiredness has made me a bit of an emo wreck and it all just seems so unreal and it's took me ages to write this due to being an emo wreck - so I don't know if I can or I will. I think it's unlikely that I'll go to work tomorrow though.

So that's it really - right now he's doing as well as can be expected and should - all being well - be okay eventually. Thank you again - all of you - for everything you've said and for taking the time - it's really meant so much to me today. Right now, I really need to either pull myself together and go see him or decide that I'm not and have a drink or ten and get some sleep. I think pacing around the flat is not actually helping.

*hugs you all*