I write the post with a heavy heart. My elderly grandfather has been diagnosed with cancer. He thinks it started in his hip a while ago, but now it’s spread to his lungs. He found out about it when he self admitted to the hospital last week.
On a side note, I want to grow up to be like him. This man has never complained, worked hard his entire life and is pretty easy to be around. He’s like a old school guy who just gets shit done. Take for example him self-admitting to the hospital. He’s in his nineties, still living on his own and still driving. He felt some difficulty breathing and then decided to drive himself over. Granted he lives in a medium-size town, but come on! I think that if I felt some tightness in my chest, that I would not be calm enough to drive myself. Maybe it’s because he was a veterinarian? So, he is personally acquainted with how bodies work.
So back to the cancer. Fuck cancer.
He had almost a liter of fluid in his lung, but only the right lung? It took a day and a half to drain it. Mainly because they had a hard time putting in a port. But the first night he was in the hospital they drained some, but by the morning it had come back. After the port and a whole day draining his lung was “dry”? I guess you would call it dry? Or not filled with fluid.
But this fluid tested positive for cancer. My aunt thinks that it’s all over his body. Fuck. He doesn’t seem to be in much pain, but said that he feels weak. That is scary because this man was a beast his whole life. Strong as an ox and still riding horseback well into his nineties.
Thankfully my aunt and uncle are there (I live in a different town). So they were able to help him home from the hospital once he was discharged. But she told me a bit about the dr’s meeting. Obviously cancer brings about scary images of people being attached to chemo bags… and the sickness that follows. But apparently there’s another medicine called monoclonal antibodies that you can take too? I’m not a science person, so I had to read more about it here.
Apparently these antibodies can bind to cancer-cell-specific antigens and induce a immune response? Also it may seem to have less of a negative effect on your body than chem? But I’m nervous because you never want to hear about your elderly grandfather starting cancer treatment. Fuck.
I don’t know what his stance on mary jane is, I’m pretty sure he’s never really used it in his life. But I probably have a conversation with him about it, just in case. Though privately, I would not be surprised if he denied treatment. Fuck. I’ll let ya’ll know what happens.
