Health part 4

We took Leola to the oncologist yesterday who confirmed that she definitely has an aggressive form of breast cancer. He said it hadn't yet manifested itself in any major organs or bones (except maybe the brain which we haven't checked) but it is just a matter of time before it does. He wants to watch the mass under her arm to see if it changes during the next 2 months. If it gets larger, we will have it removed, but he wants to try to avoid any surgery or hospitalization if necessary because of her age and dementia. Obviously she isn't a candidate for chemo therapy. He mentioned that her rapid cognitive decline could partially be explained by the fact that her body is overburdened with disease.

Given this information (and having suspected it for a while now) somehow made it a little less difficult to make the decision to move her to foster care. We know she won't live another 10 years. The foster care setting we visited on Tuesday will be a warm, inviting place for her to live and we know she will be cared for better than we could do ourselves.