The Grieving Room: Substitute Writer Edition

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Monday June 25, 2007 · 6:33 PM PDT

2007/06/25 · 18:33

I’m subbing the Grieving Room for Dem in the Heart of Texas. I’m doing this in honor of my own mom, who died on Father’s Day, 2003. My mom was the victim of indifferent, geriatric health care. Although she was under the care of a family practice physician and a cardiologist, she was diagnosed in Stage 4 cancer on March 21 and died on June 15. In the summer of 2002, she went for her annual exam and told her doctor of bumps on her back. The doctor said, oh they’re sebaceous cysts, not to worry. By Christmas she was in extreme pain in her back. It took three months for doctors to diagnose her with five fractures in her back (osteoporosis), two days before she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Those bumps on her back were metastasized cancer and she had many of them by the time she died. Geriatric patients need a manager for health care, not disparate doctors who don't communicate with each other.

My mom, Bess, was a lifelong democrat, born in Crawford, TX, in 1919. She was a third generation Texan. She grew up on a ranch and was as tough as nails. She shot a rattlesnake that slithered into the wash house, stood up to an abusive brother-in law that insulted her father, joined the WAC during WW II, and was my best confidant during my teenage years. I miss her a lot. She and my dad were married for 57 years before she died. I was pretty worried that my dad may follow her, but thankfully he is doing well.

So in honor of Bess, and missing her, the door is open to the grieving room.

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