Update on my grandmother

Sorry that this has taken so long for me to update everyone on the status of my grandmother. To say that it's been a busy week with my grandmother being in the hospital, Thanksgiving, catching up at work, and taking care of other personal things would be an understatement.

The long and the short of it is that my grandmother does NOT have cancer. She instead has pneumonia.

To help explain this drastic change of events below is a timeline of last week, I've included a description of each day and the events that transpired. Please note that this is from my perspective and does not include things said both verbally and non-verbally to others in the family.

Sunday - Granny falls (again) and burst open a cut on her knee (for the 3rd time). While there and getting everything figured out, the medical staff learns her white blood cell count is over 33,000. Normal is 4,500-10,000 (according to www.nlm.nih.gov). Word is that they think that she has pneumonia.

Monday - An x-ray of her chest shows a "spot" the size of a baseball on her lungs. If memory serves me correct, the doctor said "I've never seen a spot this big that wasn't cancer" and "you need to be looking for a nursing home with hospice and she will never leave the state of ". Mom & dad leave to go where my grandmother is. A CT scan is done to get a better look at the spot on the lung.

Tuesday - Things are a little clearer, and I find out that she might not have cancer. A biopsy is taken to see if the spot is cancer. Doctor (not same one as on Monday) who took the biopsy says that symptoms of pneumonia are not present (green junk in lungs, fever, cough, etc); however the x-ray report says it is a mass and the CT radiologist calls the place an infusion. So, we are told she either has pneumonia or cancer. We are also told the results of biopsy will not be back until Friday (normally would be Thursday but since Thursday is Thanksgiving it will be Friday).

Wednesday - First doctor tells us that the white blood count has gone down to 8,000 (within the normal range). Because of this the doctor is now thinking that she has pneumonia instead of cancer. However won’t say for sure until the results come back from the biopsy.

Thursday – Thanksgiving …….no news.

Friday – We leave home to travel to where Granny D is. Results come back from the biopsy and my grandmother does NOT have cancer! A BIG sigh of relief is experienced throughout the family.

So that’s the timeline of events. Writing it down makes it not seem as big of a deal, but when you are dealing with the “c” word, in real time people get worried really fast. Since Friday she has been dismissed from the hospital, staying at my cousin's house for the time being, and hopes to come back home next weekend.

I apologize for the last post and making the outlook look so bleak, however hopefully by reading this post you will understand why the post was worded the way it was. I also hope that this helps clear up some of your confusion. My family and I really do appreciate all of the prayers, comments, and concerns expressed by several of you throughout the past week. I can’t explain how much they touched all of us.