Well, my brother answered an e-mail I wrote him yesterday, asking (begging?) him for help. It has taken a huge load off my mind: he offered to help. In fact, he seems to have taken charge. He's been an ER and operating-room nurse for maybe fifteen years, so he's trained to do that. My only concern is that I might just switch people to rely completely on. It's so much less scary, at least, and I can work on fine-tuning the relationship later. I feel a lot better (though slightly guilty that it's mostly because someone else did something, not me.) That's me: never satisfied.