And now . . .

I mentioned a few posts ago that my parents weren't doing so well. Mom is getting better, albeit slowly; I've been encouraging her to get a little exercise to get some strength back, but she's not quite up to that yet. Dad, on the other hand, although he feels just fine, after a CAT scan and some kind of scoping exam, has found out that he has polyps in his bladder. Malignant? Don't know yet. I suppose it's possible that the polyps are benign or that if it is, in fact, bladder cancer, it's at an early enough stage to be treated easily. Both my uncle--my mom's brother, with whom my dad worked for several decades--and his wife have dealt with bladder cancer; my uncle had his bladder removed, but my aunt's cancer was treated without that. It's what made my aunt stop smoking--there's a strong link between smoking and bladder cancer.

The rational part of me knows that my parents are getting on in years and that things fall apart. My dad is 76 and has had a quadruple bypass and his carotid arteries cleaned out, plus he has high cholesterol. His occupation was such that he was on his feet all day, plus he walks religiously since his surgery, so he could be in much worse shape than he is. My mom is about to be 71, but she's had a raft of issues. Her kidneys function at about 18% of normal, which means she's on a transplant list and will need dialysis soon. A few years ago, she had seven (I think) of her vertebrae fused, because they had degenerated so much, and caused so much pain, that she couldn't walk or stand for more than about five minutes at a time. She had her gall bladder removed. She has arthritis, especially in her hands and wrists. She had her thyroid removed a zillion years ago. She has what I think is a motility disorder (I won't bore you with its symptoms), though that recurs only unpredictably. Still, they both chug along, more or less; neither is really a complainer, so I can't tell for sure. They eat well--my mother has had them eating a low-fat diet for years--and they exercise pretty regularly, especially my dad, so they're doing what they can, but . . . things fall apart.

Just not yet, I hope.