My grandmother is 93 years old and she’s one of the healthiest people I know. She’s always been very active, even mowing her own grass on her 1-acre property up until recently. She spends her days gardening and weeding and generally doing anything she can to be outdoors. Time spent at her house as a child was spent actively – going on walks or swimming in the lake.
As a child, I decided Mia (that’s what we call her) would live until at least 101. The reason was because my great grandfather lived until 101 and he was active and healthy too. He even fell off a church roof at age 85, with little consequence.
So, at 93, Mia has a lot of time left. She does. Which is why it’s so hard to see her in the hospital.
What she has is apparently complicated, and if Dr. House was a real person he would possibly enjoy a case like this.
I just found out about this yesterday, so I haven’t even had a chance to Google it (which means the information I have is second or third hand.) They suspect she has a rare disease called Retroperitoneal Fibrosis. It typically affects 40-60 year-old men, not 93-year-old women.
It can apparently affect all of her organs, from the throat to the groin. The cure is surgery. But they won’t do the surgery on her as it’s too invasive and, at her age, she surely wouldn’t survive.
So instead, they are doing smaller, less invasive surgeries. They installed some stints that her body rejected because of the disease. So tomorrow they will install different stints, which may or may not work.
She is generally uncomfortable, nauseous and in pain. She’s more talkative today than she was yesterday. She’s ready to go home.
My uncle said that this could do her in. My aunt says that at 93, anything could do her in. I say she has lots of time left, and she’s tough. Why else would she have fired her landscapers, just a few years ago, because she could do a better job herself?