My grandmother is in poor health. She will be having a lung biopsy later this week because a recent scan showed what looks like lesions on her lungs. She is on some pain medication and sleeps much of the time, and when she is awake she is pretty out of it.
Recently my 6-year-old nephew, who lives in the same house as my grandmother and mom (yes, four generations under one roof – it’s like a sitcom but not at all funny), made a little bird out of beads. My sister Lola told him it was beautiful and asked if she could have it. He replied that he had made it specially for Nanna (my grandmother has always had a thing for birds). He was a little shy about giving it to her, but he mustered up his resolve and knocked on her bedroom door.
“Here, Nanna,” he said. “I made this for you.”
“Oh, isn’t that nice,” my grandmother said. “Did you know I’m going into the hospital?”
“Yeah,” T said. “You can take this with you—“
“They’re going to stick a knife in my neck!” my grandmother said.*
Well, that shouldn’t give him nightmares at all. Thanks for sharing, Nanna!
* My understanding is that they are going to go through her throat rather than open up her chest. This is the less invasive procedure, probably due to her age. I am concerned either way about post-procedure infection but I am trying not to think about it and I am not getting a whole lot of info from my mom, which is par for the course. Mainly because she doesn’t like to talk about it in front of my grandmother because it agitates her. This is why email was invented. Why don’t people understand?
2 comments:
Wow! That was not what I expected and I screamed a little out loud.
I hope your Nanna recovers smoothly.
Yeah, I screamed too when my sister told me this story. I think that's a pretty rational reaction.
Thanks for your kind wishes!
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