I (28) was scheduled to work all week, when the day before yesterday I got a call from the hospital telling me my brother (33) had been admitted. I rushed to the hospital, forgetting entirely to call my job to tell them I'd be out that day.
Turns out my brother had a drug problem. Now I don't have money for an extended hospital stay, and I can already see the ambulance and even this small stint in the hospital completely destroying me monetarily. The doctors wanted him to stay overnight though, and my brother is my top priority, so I allow it, and spend the night there waiting for him. He's awake, cognizant, and wants to leave the next day (yesterday), despite the doctors wanting to keep him longer.
Me, knowing our situation, checks him out anyway and brings him home. Most of the day I keep him there, and try to look into rehab options (even though this will probably completely sink me).
I managed to contact one of my bosses by text to let them know what was going on, and today I'm going into work as regular (one of my older brothers, 39, arrived in town last night and they're going to stay with him today while I'm at work and follow up on the rehab stuff because they are better with that kind of thing than me).
Today I am terrified because of vaguely threatening text messege I recieved yesterday from my boss, instructing me to call the store. I hadn't seen this messege in time, and by the time I saw it it was far past closing time. Today I'm going into work, and if I am fired, I am completely ruined. Im already financially ruined, I live paycheck to paycheck and my brother doesn't have health insurance. Im fucked. My life is fucked. If I'm fired, im even more fucked, but im pretty fucked no matter what goes down. I've only got maybe 2k in savings because I am poor and live in a major city (NYC).
Where do I even go from here? Should I call a lawyer in case I get fired?