My mother is in worse shape than ever.

She shuffles past, clinging to my father's hands - 

this is maybe her 4th or 5th trip past me.

Hi mom, I say. Going to sleep?

No, she replies, I'm going to go where I'll be sane.

Earlier - when I tried, fruitlessly, to get her to settle into bed - 

she informed me that she was a skillet. 

It's funny, in a tragic way. 

We have finally learned that she has a urinary tract infection,

which for whatever reason none of her doctors have spotted till now

(despite the fact that it was the first thing my osteopath asked about,

months ago)

and we have been unable to get the antibiotics that the doctor's office

was supposed phone in to the pharmacy before the doctor

left on vacation.

They never called them in. Their office is closed.

So my mother has been roaming almost non-stop all weekend,

hallucinating day and night,

shedding so much weight over the weekend that this afternoon

I was able to scoop her up in my arms to set her into her bed.

It hadn't occurred to me till just now that we should have gone straight to the

ER, and had the doctor there give her antibiotics.

When people talk about the broken healthcare system,

Where do we figure in plain old incompetence on the part of the provider?

How much more does she - do we all- have to suffer through?

Years of this, apparently.

I wish for her doctors to have this same experience, up close and personal.