- Joined
- Mar 12, 2012
- Messages
- 2,453
I usually don't vent online but this week has really gotten to me. It all started Tuesday. I had the day off because it was a holiday. I got a call from my mom about 10am saying my grandmother (Granny) was being sent to the ER with acute pancreatitis. Awesome. I went to the hospital and she had already been admitted. My grandpa (Pappy) passed a couple years ago so it is just Granny now. Granny and Pappy were the ones who really raised me as a child. My parents just weren't good parents so I spent all my time at Granny's house when I wasn't at school. Spent all Tuesday in the hospital and went home.
Went to work the next morning and reached behind my seat to get my work bag that has my sidearm and a few work related odds and ends and found it gone. Hm, I don't remember taking it in the house last night... Checked the glove box, nothing out of place. Checked the center console, nothing out of place, except the spare mag I keep for my sidearm and some $1 bills. Sonofabitch! I been burgled! Had to go inside and tell my boss I couldn't work because I didn't have a weapon and had to go home and call the Police. Awesome. So I went home and a Deputy came out and took my statement and the serial number for my weapon and all that. They swabbed for dna but got no prints. The thief didn't break the window so he must have slim jimmed it I guess. Didn't leave anything out of place and skipped over everything but my work bag and the spare mag. I had left my Oakleys hanging from the visor where my Kershaw Zing was clipped in plain sight. Left the $70 flashlight that the spare mag was sitting on top of. I also have quite the sound system in my truck, also untouched. Even the Deputy thought it was wierd that nothing was messed up or broken, everything was the way I left it except for the missing items. The worst thing about the whole thing- after losing my P226 of course, was losing a set of atm keys I have been building for 5 years. Some of them are damn near irreplaceable. Oh well, maybe they'll try and pawn the Sig or something. A pox on their house anyways.
So I file all the reports and write out my statement and the deputies leave. I figured I would go in and catch a nap since it was only like 830 by then. My mom called me at roughly 10 saying that after getting some x-rays and doing some tests the doctors had concluded that it was not pancreatitis, it's pancreatic cancer and there's a large tumor in and around her pancreas. Not really any good treatment for it. The doctor said that usually once symptoms start to show it's usually beyond treatment. He also said he guestimated 4-6 months. Aggressive chemo could posibbly do some good and give her extra months but would make them miserable months. She opted for no chemo. The doctor said it was necessary to put a stint in her intestines because the tumor was pressing on it and closing it. This is why Granny initially went to a doctor because she was having pain any time she ate becasue of the constriction of the intestine.
Fast forward to today. After a terrible day at work where nothing went right I got the call from my older sister saying to get to the hospital asap. Granny had gone into surgery to install the stint and a drain into her pancreas to bleed the bile and apparently the whole thing went wrong. When they got inside they realized the tumor was significantly larger than they had thought it was. It was also in a position to make it unremoveable because it's all tangled through the surrounding blood vessels and tissues. The surgeon had no room to place the stint. He also noticed bile leaking into her abdomen but could not find where it was coming from. There was nothing he could do so he closed her up.
Apparently the only option would be a massive exploratory surgery to find the source of the bile leak and try to open up the intestine- which was completely pressed shut. The surgery only had a 20% +/- chance of success and would only give her an extra week or two if it succeeded. She said no. So... The doctor said there was a chance the bile leak could be repairing itself and if she makes it to tomorrow it will be a good sign. But even if the leak heals itself she will not be able to eat or drink other than the occasional sip of water because it won't go anywhere thanks to the intestinal blockage. So if she comes through it they can keep her alive for a couple weeks with intravenous liquids but that's it.
So no matter which way it works out, Granny is not coming out of it. She has been one of the strongest forces in my life and I don't know what I'll do without her. Even through all this she is in good spirits and still cracking jokes with the hospital staff even though she's still a little groggy from the anesthesia. She was tired so we left to let her rest.
We just got home, my uncle is sitting with her through the night. We only live a couple miles from the hospital so we can be there in a flash and there's just too many of us to stay there. So I'll be sleeping by the phone and hoping it doesn't ring.
It's been a long week and I have the feeling it's going to be a longer weekend. If you read all that I thank you. I just needed a little comradery.
Went to work the next morning and reached behind my seat to get my work bag that has my sidearm and a few work related odds and ends and found it gone. Hm, I don't remember taking it in the house last night... Checked the glove box, nothing out of place. Checked the center console, nothing out of place, except the spare mag I keep for my sidearm and some $1 bills. Sonofabitch! I been burgled! Had to go inside and tell my boss I couldn't work because I didn't have a weapon and had to go home and call the Police. Awesome. So I went home and a Deputy came out and took my statement and the serial number for my weapon and all that. They swabbed for dna but got no prints. The thief didn't break the window so he must have slim jimmed it I guess. Didn't leave anything out of place and skipped over everything but my work bag and the spare mag. I had left my Oakleys hanging from the visor where my Kershaw Zing was clipped in plain sight. Left the $70 flashlight that the spare mag was sitting on top of. I also have quite the sound system in my truck, also untouched. Even the Deputy thought it was wierd that nothing was messed up or broken, everything was the way I left it except for the missing items. The worst thing about the whole thing- after losing my P226 of course, was losing a set of atm keys I have been building for 5 years. Some of them are damn near irreplaceable. Oh well, maybe they'll try and pawn the Sig or something. A pox on their house anyways.
So I file all the reports and write out my statement and the deputies leave. I figured I would go in and catch a nap since it was only like 830 by then. My mom called me at roughly 10 saying that after getting some x-rays and doing some tests the doctors had concluded that it was not pancreatitis, it's pancreatic cancer and there's a large tumor in and around her pancreas. Not really any good treatment for it. The doctor said that usually once symptoms start to show it's usually beyond treatment. He also said he guestimated 4-6 months. Aggressive chemo could posibbly do some good and give her extra months but would make them miserable months. She opted for no chemo. The doctor said it was necessary to put a stint in her intestines because the tumor was pressing on it and closing it. This is why Granny initially went to a doctor because she was having pain any time she ate becasue of the constriction of the intestine.
Fast forward to today. After a terrible day at work where nothing went right I got the call from my older sister saying to get to the hospital asap. Granny had gone into surgery to install the stint and a drain into her pancreas to bleed the bile and apparently the whole thing went wrong. When they got inside they realized the tumor was significantly larger than they had thought it was. It was also in a position to make it unremoveable because it's all tangled through the surrounding blood vessels and tissues. The surgeon had no room to place the stint. He also noticed bile leaking into her abdomen but could not find where it was coming from. There was nothing he could do so he closed her up.
Apparently the only option would be a massive exploratory surgery to find the source of the bile leak and try to open up the intestine- which was completely pressed shut. The surgery only had a 20% +/- chance of success and would only give her an extra week or two if it succeeded. She said no. So... The doctor said there was a chance the bile leak could be repairing itself and if she makes it to tomorrow it will be a good sign. But even if the leak heals itself she will not be able to eat or drink other than the occasional sip of water because it won't go anywhere thanks to the intestinal blockage. So if she comes through it they can keep her alive for a couple weeks with intravenous liquids but that's it.
So no matter which way it works out, Granny is not coming out of it. She has been one of the strongest forces in my life and I don't know what I'll do without her. Even through all this she is in good spirits and still cracking jokes with the hospital staff even though she's still a little groggy from the anesthesia. She was tired so we left to let her rest.
We just got home, my uncle is sitting with her through the night. We only live a couple miles from the hospital so we can be there in a flash and there's just too many of us to stay there. So I'll be sleeping by the phone and hoping it doesn't ring.
It's been a long week and I have the feeling it's going to be a longer weekend. If you read all that I thank you. I just needed a little comradery.
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