Family
I got a call the other day from my mother. Her sister, who lives in Madison, has fallen ill and is in the hospital.She has had strong neck pains for several years and had chalked it up to work, stress, and bad posture. She's been going for weekly massages to help relieve the situation, but nothing has helped. They even installed a hot tub to help relax her muscles.
Well, the doctors took x-rays of her neck area and found some disturbing problems. They said that the bones in her spinal column resemble something between swiss and cottage cheese. Something has been eating away at those bones for some time. They are very weak and degraded.
Whatever is eating away at it has not spread to other areas of her neck and body, so that's good.
The doctors are performing some tests today and will have some preliminary results very soon. If it's not cancer, then they will fuse her bones together late next week. I don't know how this surgery will limit her movement, but I'm sure it will. If it is cancer, ...then they obviously have to get rid of the cancer before doing anything else.
We're all hoping it's not cancer. No one on her side of the family has ever had cancer, so she would be the first. We've all been remarkably healthy, with my father's father the only person to die early, ...from cancer.
It's odd because she was just in town a few weeks ago to see a Brewers game. She got a chance to see my daughter for the first time, and everything seemed normal. She goofed around and laughed and held the baby, ... all the while something was slowly eating away at her.
One day the pain is too great, you go to the doctor, and your whole life changes.
These are the times when you realize how important life is. I feel fortunate that there is a chance she will survive and only have reduced mobility. As long as she survives, as long as she is there tomorrow and the day after ...then it's ok. When faced with the prospect of losing someone, the superficial things quickly go out the window.
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