Congoleum Juice

Dad with Jackie, John, me and Michael

Congoleum juice is all Michael asks for in the hospital but Congoleum is a type of floor tile.  Eventually he admits that it's really Cherry Coke.  How the two are related you would need to be schizophrenic to comprehend.
     When my older brother Michael was first diagnosed at the age of 19, it was with chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia because of his profound thought disorder.  While it's true that Michael has the classic symptoms of hearing voices, delusional thinking and paranoia, these are common in most acute psychoses.  It was only after my younger brother John was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, then called manic depression, that the psychiatrists added lithium to Michael's drug regimen.  He was reclassified as having schizoaffective disorder.  
     At first the lithium caused a massive weight loss.  While most anti-psychotic drugs make you gain weight, lithium made Michael's weight plunge so dramatically that he had to be hospitalized for starvation and put on a  feeding tube.  Even with extra portions and liquid supplements, Michael still has difficulty maintaining the proper weight for his six foot frame.  
     I have enviously watched him shovel into his mouth a quarter-pound double cheeseburger, chili cheese dogs, and fries, knowing that he will go right back to his nursing home for dinner and never gain an ounce.  Still I don't envy his having to live in a facility with more than 400 people bouncing off each others' delusions, pestering him for money and cigarettes.  
     Perhaps living with so many other people doesn't bother him since he is used to sharing his mind with so many alter egos.  Sometimes he's Christopher Reeves, AKA Superman, AKA Clark Kent.  Then he's Jesus Christ on the cross, holding out his upturned palms as if we can see the stigmata.  Unfortunately his latest incarnation as Rocky Balboa has left him with black eyes and multiple bruises.  
     At least he no longer believes he's married to our mother and I'm his daughter!  Now he proudly announces to anyone who will listen that he's the Pope President so you need to do what he says.  Who could argue with the Pope President?