My mom called this afternoon to let me know that an aunt of ours had died the other day. She will be on her way to Kansas tonight with her cousin & his wife to attend the funeral tomorrow.
I didn't really know this aunt very well, but I do remember her. My mom isn't really sure what happened, except that her aunt was recovering from
shingles, and collapsed on Tuesday or Wednesday. She was taken to the hospital and never recovered from the collapse. I'm curious if they found out why she collapsed. I wonder if the shingles had infected her brain or spinal tissues? It is possible, though rare:
Rarely, infection may spread from the nerves originating in the brain into the central nervous system (anywhere along the brain and spinal cord), where it can cause inflammation or blockage of the blood vessels, leading to stroke, paralysis, and possibly death.
Anyway, like I said, I didn't know her very well, so while I'm sad that she passed away, I'm not in tears or anything. But it does remind me of the ages of the rest of my mom's family (the aunt who died was one of my grandmother's sisters)... And also reminds me of the number of ailments my various family members on that side are suffering from or have suffered:
- My grandmother had colon cancer, it is now in remission.
- One of her brothers has had heart surgery, and is due for stomach surgery soon to remove some sort of mass.
- Her other brother also has issues with his heart.
- Her living sister has lupus.
- My mom's brother has diabetes.
So far my mom's two sisters are healthy. As for my mom, she's relatively healthy, except her memory is starting to go wonky. She's had a cat scan done but I've yet to get an update on the results of that and whether they found anything amiss.
Kind of makes me wonder what's in store for me when I get old. 😕
That's all, folks...
