Friday, February 8, 2008

Why do things have to suck?

My dad called last night to tell me that my 96 year old Granna had been rushed to the hospital from her apartment because she could not speak and lost some of her ability to move.

"Did she have a stroke?"

"No, it's worse. It's cancer."

It turns out she has three brain tumors that are most likely metastasized lung cancer. She will spend five days in the hospital while they give her medicine to reduce the swelling (she's starting to be able to speak now) and then they will move her into a nursing home.

The kicker: the doctor thinks it's best not to tell her what is going on. He thinks that by the time they really do know the full extent, the tumors may have grown such that she doesn't really know what's going on anymore. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

They have no idea how long the cancer has been there. She has had no symptoms. She's 96, and up to this point she has slightly high blood pressure, a little arthritis in her knee, and her hearing was starting to go a bit. She never learned to drive, so she walked everywhere. Her father was in his 90's when he died, so it obviously runs in the family, but I know her walking had a lot to do with it. She could get around much better than my other grandma who is much younger than she is.

Now we just have to see how fast they are growing. And wait.

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