We got the call on New Years Eve, confirming the diagnosis…GlioBlastoma??? What??? My Grandma has a Brain Tumor? I felt like my head exploded. My Mom and I dropped everything and jumped on a plane to fly to Birmingham. We really had no idea what we were walking into. We knew she had been struggling to use her left hand (and she is a South Paw)…and we knew that she was scared.
I can barely describe how important my Grandmother is to me. While she may look like everyone’s Grandmother…white hair, glasses, wrinkled hands…my Grandmother is a young Woman only trapped in that body. She is cynical, sarcastic, quick-witted, has insight into life that I love to listen to and she is a serious riot. Spending time with her has always been one of my favorite past times and though we live far apart, we still talk on the phone several times a week. So hearing that she had a brain tumor not only threw me for a loop…it literally rocked my world.
When we got to Birmingham, my Mom and her Sister and Brother needed to have some time to talk and I was happy to volunteer to sleep at the hospital with my Grandma. She was sleeping when I came in and I watched her for a bit…but she soon woke up and we had one of our awesome conversations about life. This amazing Woman, had decided that she would take some treatment if it would help to shrink the tumor for a while, would buy herself some time to enjoy her loved ones a little longer, and then would make peace with this world.
I kissed her goodnight and said Happy New Year, then waited for sleep to come. It didn’t that night.
She started her radiation treatment yesterday and said it went pretty well. She is back in her home and getting around well and as usual is being amazing! I am sad that I don’t live closer so I can sit with her and hang out and be a help to her and my Aunt. But I will get back down there. I love you Grandma! You are one of my Favorite people…always have been…always will be! I am always just a phone call (and 2 plane rides) away! XOXO!
