One Last Family Update for 2015

I haven't discussed my family or their various health situations recently, mostly because things have been relatively stable these past few months.

On Friday the 18th, my father collapsed in our kitchen. He was eating some cherry cheesecake, and as he was adjusting his chair he fell out, landed on his stomach, and bruised his knee. I found him with his right arm wrapped around his walker, and after untangling him I was able to move him to his side. He was still too heavy to pick up, so I asked him to press his Life Alert button. (He had just received his necklace earlier that day, and it never occurred to him to press the button with his good arm.) About 10 minutes later the paramedics arrived, lifted him from the floor to the chair to a stretcher, and wheeled him out to Good Samaritan Hospital.

The good news is, he suffered no real physical injury as a result of the fall. The bad news is, a brain scan determined that the tumor that was removed in June 2013 had reemerged, and a biopsy revealed that the cancer had spread to his liver and kidneys. He entered a nursing home on Christmas Eve, and he'll start hospice care sometime in January. Sadly, the cancer wasn't caught until it was almost terminal and at my father's age, chemotherapy would serve only to rush the inevitable. That's all I can say at the moment, and as trite as it all sounds, please keep my family in your thoughts.

Next week, I'll make my picks for the best TV of 2015.

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