My grandmother passed away this morning

***Chip*** · #1 09-11-2004, 01:53 PM

My grandmother had a pretty bad heart attack a little over two weeks ago. The day I got back from Cedar Point, we drove to Tucson from Phoenix, and visited my aunt. We spent the night at my apartment and my aunt called my mom to tell her my grandmother was in the hospital.

It turns out she had a heart attack a few days before. She ended up with a hole in her heart between the two top chambers. Blood would flow between the two. She also had some clogged arteries leading from her heart, so they had to do bypass surgery. The surgery took six hours, but she made it through.

She stayed in the hospital up until last night. She was slowly getting better, though the nicotine withdrawl kept her up at night. She was heavily medicated so she was a bit out of it. She'd speak Spanish to my uncle and aunt, so they had to brush up on their Spanish in order to tell her things or to know what she was saying.

A couple nights ago the doctors said she took a turn for the worse, and my aunt and uncle decided to make her a do not resuscitate.

She got a little better, so they decided to take her out of the hospital and put her in the nursing home she was in. Actually, it was mostly her decision to go back to the nursing home. My aunt says she was ready to die, so she decided to die in the place she liked, not some crummy hospital.

My aunt called me at about 10 a.m. and informed me that she passed away at about 5 a.m. I'm upset, but I was expecting it. I did not expect her to make it into the year 2005.

My grandmother had been a smoker since she was 16. She smoked for over 60 years. Every single day she'd smoke. I don't know how many packs a day, but that doesn't matter. A few years ago she would fall asleep smoking, or she wouldn't be fast enough to get to the door to put her ash out, so the room in her assisted living center has burn marks on the carpet.

Eventually she moved into the nursing home of the living center where she was bed- or wheelchair-ridden most of the time. She couldn't walk anymore. She didn't have control over her bladder, either.

In 1991 she had a massive stroke. It almost killed her. The only reason she survived was because a friend of hers got into her apartment after she didn't go to work for two days. She was lying on her couch. That operation lasted nine hours, I'm told.

My grandmother was always in denial that smoking was bad. Up until her last day she wanted a cigarette, even though she was on the patch. She said it helped a little, but she really wanted a cancer stick. She was on oxygen in the hospital, and she wondered why the doctors wouldn't wheel her outside to smoke. We tried to explain to her that you can't smoke on oxygen. The hardest part would be trying to tell her she wasn't allowed to smoke ever again. She'd get so mad at us.

She denied that the stroke was due to her smoking, and she denied that her heart attack was due to her smoking. It drove us nuts, but I guess she's been doing it for so long, she didn't see the harm it was doing to her body.

But over 60 years of smoking really takes its toll. She had a deep voice -- from the smoking. I bet her lungs are as black as coal. Gross.

My aunt and uncle are making funeral arrangements now. It'll probably happen Tuesday or Wednesday. In either instance, I will most likely have to miss some classes, which I hate doing. But this is my grandmother. Screw classes. I loved her.

Thanks for reading.

ErioL · #2 09-11-2004, 01:56 PM

I'm sorry man...That's rough. I hope everything works out with your relatives, and that they get through this alright. We wish you the best. Peace

DEJA-VU RULES · #3 09-11-2004, 03:04 PM

That is sad and after reading that story I never want to smoke. I hope you and your family get through such a hard time ok.

CPdude05 · #4 09-11-2004, 03:06 PM

Thats really sad. Cigarettes suck. It stinks that they are so addicting.

Carowinds 73-03 · #5 09-11-2004, 04:33 PM

Very sorry to hear that man. Thats really sad and is makeing me re-think the whole smokeing thing. I can't stres enough how bad smokeing is yet i do it but was going to quit this New Years. Sorry again for your loss man and hope everything goes ok over the next few weeks.

SFOG Freak · #6 09-11-2004, 04:42 PM

I've been through this 4 times. All my grandparents died within a two year period, it was really tough.

I'm sorry man, I really am.

Skye · #7 09-11-2004, 04:59 PM

if she smoked that much, she did well to live to over 76.

pipesdrums · #8 09-11-2004, 05:07 PM

Sorry to hear. I know what its like, I lost my Grandfather to smoking too

**Jimmy B** · #9 09-11-2004, 06:28 PM

I know what it's like as I've lost one of my great grandmothers over four years ago at the age of 98 years, when she had a series of serious illness months before her passing.

I know you'll get through this Alex, just hang in there. We're all here for you!

Kraken · #10 09-11-2004, 11:10 PM

Sue Big Tobacco for being so heartless.

BimmerZ3 · #11 09-12-2004, 12:15 AM

[QUOTE=DEJA-VU RULES]That is sad and after reading that story I never want to smoke. I hope you and your family get through such a hard time ok.[/QUOTE]
Did you want to smoke before?

rlrcstrfreak · #12 09-12-2004, 12:25 AM

Smoking would never even be in my nightmares its way beyond that! it is a horrible thing that should have never been invinted!

sorry about that :-( My best friend/dog molly died on cristmas :-( I miss her so much she was the best dog in the world!

**Phil** · #13 09-12-2004, 12:32 AM

I really decided smoking was not for me when my mom told the story of her dad's throat cancer and the way she felt that day in school when she was told he died. That really got me thinking.

Sorry to hear about this Chip.

BimmerZ3 · #14 09-12-2004, 01:17 PM

I decided that smoking was not for me when it smelled like ass. All the stories of death just go to re-inforce that.

**Kyle L** · #15 09-12-2004, 01:57 PM

I feel your pain. I remember when my Grandmother passed away. Around 6 P.M. one day my dad called me from New Jersey telling me that she had passed away. The thing is that my father was actually crying. Thats something I've never actually hear him do. I was extremely sad.

The next day I was immediatley on a plane over to New Jersey.

I'm sorry to hear that Chip.