Late last week L got a call from her former SO Erich’s daughter, letting her know that he was in Seton Hospital after having a stroke. This was upsetting, but no great surprise. At 67, he’s smoked all his adult life, hasn’t taken very good care of his health, was way overweight, and so on. Then L learned that the hospital had found more than just a stroke: they diagnosed emphysema, diabetes, and cancerous lesions in his stomach. The endocrinologist couldn’t decide what kind of cancer it was, so he biopsied to identify it and plan treatment for that around planning the stroke rehab.
Today the doctor gave Erich’s daughter the diagnosis: Stage IV metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Prognosis: 90 to 180 days. The daughter has to find hospice care for him by Thursday, which is as long as Seton will agree to keep him. (She has lines on one or two possible places near her home in Sugar Land and is going to see them tomorrow, so it’s not desperate right now.)
L is being as resilient as possible, but it’s still bothering her. She’s known Erich since the early ’90s, had a relationship with him for more than a decade. That’s enough history that you don’t do a rubber-ball bounce-back from learning that sort of news about someone who was important to you.
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