Friday, August 6, 2010

Jean

My sister Jean has Parkinson's Disease and MSA. It's getting more and more advanced, of course, as diseases like this will do.

Wednesday, she went in the hospital and was found to have one lung completely full of fluid. This is not good, as she lacks the muscle control required to cough productively. Plus, having pneumonia this badly is just plain bad news, even if you are 100% healthy otherwise.

As of last night things were proceeding, a treatment plan was in place, and generally the mood was a little lighter. My other sister Marie had decided to stay home instead of flying out immediately.

However, Marie just called to say that the doctors have now told Reg (Jean's husband) that the prognosis is pretty close to 50/50 at this point. She is sitting at her local airport on her way to ... (what? Sit shiva in advance? Cook and wash dishes and do laundry and sit by Jean's bed?) ... a trip that will likely take over 15 hours to accomplish because she lives in OuterMongolia and Jean lives in the middle of England--not quite OuterMongolia but in a place with no overseas airport.

My brother Del also called--after Marie--to say that he can't go anywhere till late next week, and if he does he would fly out of my airport so we should keep each other in the loop as far as our travels, should we need to go over soon.

Yes, there is talk of memorial service scheduling. Because with family spread all over the world, a funeral just can't happen without planning weeks in advance.

I hate (HATE) being the youngest in my family.

EDIT 7:45 p.m. 8/6/10: R.I.P. Jean
October 27, 1949-August 7 [in England], 2010

1 thing(s) to say:

molly said...

I am so sorry. I will be thinking of you.

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