Most of the month of February my meemaw went to the hospital for pains in her stomach. The doctor did a lot of test to see what was wrong. One test showed that she might have a tumor but they didn’t know if it was cancerous. To find out they had to put a scope down her throat to see exactly what it was. The only way they could do this was by getting her red blood cells up. They kept her in the hospital for about a week and that whole week they gave her blood and sugar water. After that week her red blood count was up and they did the surgery.

They found out she does have cancer in her stomach but they don’t know where it came from. We can tell that his made her a little depressed. She wouldn’t want to admit it. The only time she did was when a nurse asked her if she knew why she was in the hospital. They kept her in the hospital for a little longer because they wanted to give her the first chemotherapy treatment there. The doctor released her a couple days later and she had to go to the chemotherapy every Monday. The chemo made her really tired. She couldn’t walk anymore cause it made her really weak.

She was out of the hospital for only a week before she had a stroke. It was around midnight when my Uncle Randy called and said he couldn’t get her off the portable toilet. My mom and Jim left right after they hung up. When they got there they both had to get my meemaw off the toilet to get her back into her chair. After they got her on the chair my meemaw said she couldn’t move her left arm and leg. So my mom called her doctors emergency line. He told her to take her to the hospital because that shouldn’t happen going through chemo. Since she couldn’t move my mom had to call an ambulance to get her to OVMC Hospital.

The next day at the hospital the doctor had told my mom that she has had a stroke. He told her it was more in likely cause from her blood being too thick. They said they would have to stop the chemotherapy cause she was to weak. They wanted to get her strength back up before they started chemo again. The next few days she didn’t get worse but she didn’t get better either. She did suffer though those days though. She had pain in her leg and stomach but the nurse hardly came in to give her pain medicine. They didn’t pay much attention to her. Whenever someone paged them they would take a half hour getting there. Only one nurse treated her good but she was only there twice a week. The one night she had another stroke; at least we thought. When my mom got there the doctor had given her bad news.
The next day he came in to explain to the whole family as of what was probably going to happen. So my mom, sister, aunt, two uncles, and me sat in a conference room waiting to hear what the doctor had to say. When he came in he sat down then started to explain what was going on. He said that she didn’t have another stroke, he r first on just prolonged. That the stroke is killing her brain and then it would kill her organs. She would probably not live much longer. She was going to die and there was nothing her could do to stop it.
Now she cant move her left leg, arm, and now the left side of her mouth. So she wasn’t able to talk at all. My mom had to feed her or she wouldn’t and couldn’t eat or drink. She’s also in more pain than before, but the nurses didn’t change much. She also slept a lot so we didn’t get to see her that much. She couldn’t sleep while we were in there. Most the time we stayed in the waiting room. My aunt brought my cousins more now cause she was really sick. That week was terrible.
One morning when my mom went to the hospital she noticed she was able to understand her better. She was also able to move her arm a little more. We asked the doctor if we could have her transferred to Martins Ferry Hospital for physical therapy so she can get stronger and go back on chemotherapy. At Ferry Hospital she was getting better. She started to Joke around again and do things she did before this all happened. We all thought she was going to get better from her on.
Then one night her organs started to shut down. The doctor put her on pain meds so she didn’t feel anything. The next day when my mom and Jim arrived to the hospital the doctor told her what was going to happen. He said he would be surprised if she made it through the night. After school Jim picked me up and took me to the hospital to see her. She just lied there; never moved unless the nurses moved her. No one wanted to leave that night. I stayed to about 12:00 p.m. before my mom took me home then went back. That night I couldn’t sleep no matter how hard I tried. I called my mom to tell her so she called a friend to pick me up. When I got there I still couldn’t sleep. I was up till 6:30 a.m. then woke back up at 7:40 a.m. When I woke up we went to the school so my mom could explain to the office what was going on and I went to coach Lahna’s room to tell her I wasn’t going to be at practice for a while. That night everyone left early no one stayed past 12:00 p.m.
That morning the hospital called, they said that my meemaw had passed at 3:15 a.m. and we could come see her if we wanted. My Uncle Randy did but we didn’t want to see her that way.
She died on March 12, 2009 at 3:15 a.m. at the age of 70. The showing was that Friday from 10-12 and 2-4 and the funeral was the next day. The pastor Don Cordery who did a very good job he did the service. We buried her by my grandpa. I know one thing for sure all this happen faster than anyone could believe. It started out with a little pain in her stomach to death.