Gettin' Better!

Gram's on the mend. They gave her an oil change, cleaned her carbourator, and replaced a fuel line, and she's almost ready to get back on the road.

Actually, it's amazing how quick she bounced back. She went into the hospital 87 pounds with a blood oxygen level of 60 (most people are no longer alive at that point), collapsed lung, congestive heart failure, and they quickly discovered an aeortic aneurism down near her groin along with a growth in her lung. She was so sick at first that they couldn't fix any of the things that were wrong because of all the other things that were wrong!

My poor mom was absolutely terrified that Gram wouldn't leave the hospital alive, her condition was so poor. Everyone was scared. Last Thursday there were a bunch of people in the room hovering and talking to Gram in a baby voice, like, "Do you want some waaaterr??" Aw jeez. This kinda pissed me off because I knew Gram was tougher than that. And they had her drugged to high heaven on something that was supposed to be mild, but instead she was konked out completely, twitching, moaning and blowing spit bubbles. That's fuckin' disturbing and I never want to see that again.

I got to spend some time alone with her when she was finally coming out of it so I was teasing her about what to watch on TV. She noticed they put in a new TV and I told her she finally got some cable and asked what she like to watch. "Oh, I like to watch TNT, USA, and Spike" (she's a total crime drama junkie). I said, "Hey Gram! You think they have the dirty movie channel on here?" To which she predictably replied, "Ohhhh, sheez," and tossed her hand at me. I know she hates Dr. Who, so I told her it was on and she said, "Oh ish!" I turned it to TNT for her and Forrest Gump was on, but she said, "I have seen that movie about FIFTY times." Then i gave up and just turned on the History channel. Then I made sure she ate dinner before my cousin and I left.

By the next day she was so much better everyone was amazed. They'd been pumping her full of saline, dextrose, and antibiotics, and she got well enough that the docs could perform some more tests. They extracted liquid from her lung and tested it. There were no free floating cancer cells, signifying that if it is cancer, it's not fast spreading. Then she got well enough to have her aneurism removed. I was really scared about her being under general anesthesia so long, but Gram was way more scared than I was, of course. She asked my mom to take care of some insurance paperwork, and took confession for the first time in nearly 30 years. But she's super tough and made it through fine.

She might even be able to go home really soon, which is all she can think about right now. She just wants to go back to her senior high rise and take care of her mom. That's right. Great Grama is 98 and still tickin'. When the occupational therapist came in one day I was there, Gram was talking to her mom, and said, "Ma, I gotta go, there's someone here now... ok... i'll call you in a little bit." The OT had this quizzical look about her, like my Grammy was maybe off her nut. "I don't mean to be nosy, but who were you talking to?" "Oh I was talking to my mother," and I piped in with , "Yep, Great Grama is 98!" because the OT was kind of looking like are-you-SURE-about-that?

My family doesn't have much in the way of luck or opportunities, but we sure do have some longevity! We just sometimes have to "rock on completely with some brand new components."