It’s been nearly a year

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since my grandmother ended up in the hospital.  It’s been nearly a year since the docs told her she needed to seriously look into hospice because she likely wouldn’t make it to Christmas.  But yet here she is 🙂  Still doing well too.  You can tell she’s going downhill, but the chemo is slowing down the process with little affect on quality of life.  I remember that being one of my concerns with going back on chemo – would  chemo zap any possibility of quality of life.  The answer has been a resounding no, I think.    My grandmother has had more fatigue to deal with but on the whole she’s been able to do a lot of the things she loves to do.  She loves playing cards and she loves reading.  She can’t really get out of the house much, so my paprents and I (and my brothers when they’re here) going down to play cards is good for her.  Today though my dad and I took her and my grandfather out to lunch.  That was nice and said a lot about how she was feeling that she really wanted to go out to lunch, instead of us just bringing something down (or picking something up on the way to their house).  Anyway, we’re going to throw my grandmother a party this Labor Day to celebrate the fact that it’s been a year since the docs told her to go into hospice (and that’s not the only time in the last year the docs have suggested doing so).  Now all I have to do is find an electric (or musical) birthday candle. The key is that it cannot, under any circumstances, have an open flame (my grandmother is on oxygen).  So after work one day, I’ll stop by a party store and get one 🙂