It’s rare that people die without warning. Unless they have the widow-maker heart attack, most people just get sicker and sicker until they are worn down and systems start to fail. Ala Chance.
In 2019, I predict we start to see some system failure for Amber. (Actually, it’s already started with her leg and apnea and high blood pressure). There may be some skin infections necessitating a hospitalization early in the year. That is when diabetes is discovered. Maybe her lymphedema becomes so bad she’s unable to stand. The apnea will require a cPap. During the year, she may have bouts of gastroenteritis, kidney failure, pneumonia, or such terrible heartburn she thinks it’s her heart. What little movement she does now will end, and she’ll need a walker/wheelchair/personal scootypuff. She may need supplemental oxygen.
She may or may not tell us these things, but we’ll see signs. Some prescription left in a background, or a tank reflected in a mirror. Her appearance will deteriorate even more. Her hair will have flakes of dandruff. She may cut it due to the difficulty of keeping it clean, but it’ll end up stringy and dirty nonetheless and it’s more obvious now that the poop bun is gone. The holes in her pants will grow in size, the rings on her knuckles and neck will get darker, she’ll start getting strange lipomas like Tammy Slaton, her ankle fat will cover her feet and drag on the floor. There will be fewer clothing hauls because she’s hitting the bedsheet/hospital gown era, where clothes are just snapped on. She’ll still shop but she’ll find a new obsession, one in keeping with a diminished life. Maybe she’ll go back to cheap body sprays, or candles. Pillows, blankets, shawls, or stickers for the back of her wheelchair.
All videos will be sitdown videos (as they are now), but most will be in bed, some even lying down now on her side. There will be breaks due to illnesses she can’t fight off anymore. The flu puts her in bed for weeks. But then she’ll come back and she will show us her fat and do mukbangs to keep the dollars flowing in. She’ll still be cheery. She’ll still be planning on dieting. Her denial will tell her there is still time. It’ll just take a lot longer to make herself presentable in her own mind, so videos will be scarcer.
Becky will hit the 400 lb mark. She won’t leave as long as Amber’s money rolls in. Instead of cheesecake fattory and sit-down restaurants, takeout will be more the norm. They’ll pay fees to get it delivered or Necky will still drive although her belly is starting to make turning the wheel difficult too. She doesn’t want a job, so she’s not giving up. Amber will shop but on Amazon. Instead of seeing her at knee high views in Wommart, we’ll watch her scroll through online shopping.
By summer, Rickie may see the writing on the wall and take his husband out of the house. It’s starting to smell and Amber rarely gets up and she can only shower in his room so it never happens-he’s standing his ground! The whole house feels like depression. He doesn’t want to end up taking care of Amber so he decides that even though it was his to start, he’d rather find a nice clean house somewhere else. New people may move in, or Amber may be able to pay the rent herself now that she can’t hit restaurants as often.
Amber never goes back to the singing doctor. The pressure of joining a weight loss club with her own doctor gets to her and the guilt makes her quit. She also doesn’t get insurance. With the first hospitalization she becomes deeply in debt. She finally tries to get government assistance, which she won’t for fat but may for depression. And yes, start a GoFundMe.
The end of 2019 she turns 29. She has one more year left. 2019, the infections are longer, the wounds don’t heal, the diabetes is uncontrollable. In 2020 she’s weakened by all the problems that happened starting 2018, plus she hits 700 lbs. An antibiotic resistant infection sets in. Amber has a sheetcake on her 30th birthday, vows she’ll start over on the 1st, and dies in her sleep the next day.
