My grandmother had some fluid removed from her chest that had built up on the outside of her lungs. When the fluid was analyzed, they found malignant lung cells in it. She saw the oncologist today, and they said that she does have some cancer activity at the microscopic level, likely a recurrence of the same lung cancer she was treated for back in 1999 (a type that nearly never recurs, naturally). Keep in mind, she never smoked! Given the tiny size of the cancer at this time and the current slow rate of growth, they do not see the need to do chemo or radiation at this time. Obviously, they will monitor her to make sure things don't start progressing rapidly, but if it's taken 10 years to just now start having symptoms, we all hope it will be many many more years before we have to worry about treating it aggressively.
Then my grandfather was admitted to the hospital Sunday with bleeding. He was very weak and had apparently lost a good bit of blood. They gave him a couple of units in the hospital on Monday to try and stabilize his blood count. The idea was to make sure everything was okay on Tuesday and send him home. Unfortunately, the blood tests they ran today were not satisfactory, so he got at least one more unit (that's the last I heard this afternoon) and will stay another night. Hopefully, things will look good in the morning and he can go home. He is almost 90 and gets very confused at night at the hospital. Due to previous experience with him being extremely agitated, one or the other of my parents has stayed with him overnight each of the past three nights. I'm sure each one of them is looking forward to being back in his/her own bed, hopefully tomorrow night.
If you have any good thoughts or prayers to spare, for my grandparents and my parents, it would be much appreciated.
Currently feeling:
cautiously hopeful
Erin, I'll be thinking of you. What a scary time.
ReplyDeleteI hope both your grandparents improve steadily.