A Blue Christmas... Goodbye Grandma

My Grandma (Dad's Mom) passed away on Saturday. She had been having a persistent cough and her doc gave her some meds to take home. She did not get better and ended up being hospitalized for pneumonia. The hospital released her after 4 days, with oxygen to help her breathing. A week and a half went by and still no sign of getting better. One night she could not breathe and was rushed to the hospital. She had a collapsed lung. 2 liters of fluid pressed down on her right lung and made it collapse. (1 liter = 1 pound) Because she was so unstable, the docs could not do all the tests properly and timely. Finally after she was stable, tests were done but we had to wait days and days to get the results. She was finally diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Previously, she had shown no signs of this so we were all shocked at the diagnosis. Per her wishes, she was taken off the machines. All this happened within 3 weeks time.

Good-bye Grammy. I will always remember how you would always give me a can of tuna fish. It made you happy that I was so happy. You also let me ruffle up your bedding and push the pillows off the bed. You always indulged me :-)

Everyone, please tell your humans that smoking is bad. My Grammy hadn't touched a cigarette in over 30 years. When my parents searched the web for info on lung cancer, they learned that even smoking that long ago can come back to haunt you, but it is definitely better to quit and give yourself better odds. Even better is if you haven't started smoking, don't ever start.