This is a letter I wrote for my Pop to send to their friends they had while living in Reno, NV for 11 yrs. It is written from his perspective…
Dear Friends ,
I am sorry to have to let you all know about Dorothy’s passing in this letter. This has been a difficult past few months and a sudden ending to a joy-filled life.For those of you who don’t know, I wanted to fill you in with a little timeline of the past few years. In 2001 she had quintuple bypass surgery and has been doing rehab since then.
Shortly after the bypass surgery the doctors found that 2 of them had closed back up, but there was nothing they could do about it because her veins were so thin.In 2003 she had hip replacement surgery and her heart held up just fine through that. Also in 2003 she had her carotid artery cleaned out.
Sometime in late summer 2006 (July or August) strange things started happening. In early July she fell while making her bed. She wasn’t sure what had happened but just assumed that her foot had gotten caught up in the blanket. Then, in August she was standing at the refrigerator and her right leg drew up under her and she wasn’t able to straighten it out. She didn’t fall because she had something to hang onto and I was able to wheel a dining room chair over and have her sit in it.
She also began having seizures in bed at night during this time where her right leg would tremor. We went to the doctor and he did an MRI and discovered a brain tumor. It was 2 cm growth in the top left side of her brain. It was called a Meningioma and is almost always benign. They said it was slow growing tumor and that if you’re going to have a brain tumor this is the kind you want to have. The tumor was pressing on the lining of the brain and causing swelling which was supposedly causing the seizures/symptoms that she was having.
So, then he sent her to the heart doctor for a CT scan to check her carotid arteries and they were fine. He called her heart doctor in Dallas who set her up an appointment with a neurologist. After more tests they decided to treat the tumor with stereotactic radiosurgery. It only took a few minutes and we were eating dinner at Red Lobster soon after. This procedure was supposed to kill off the tumor and reduce the swelling that was pressing on the brain. They were hoping the symptoms would then go away.
However over the next 6 weeks the symptoms increased to where she was using a walker, and eventually went to a wheelchair. She lost the ability to use her right leg and arm. She wasn’t able to do anything for herself. We had tried to contact the doctor in Dallas, but he wasn’t getting back to us. On November 20th I took her to see her doctor here in Mt. Pleasant and he was so shocked at the deterioration that he admitter her, called her Dallas doctor himself and had her moved to Dallas the next day. They began doing a battery of tests. Then, it was Thanksgiving and they decided that they would do the surgery to remove the tumor the following week. They did a chemical stress test on her heart on Tuesday, November 28th which was really scary for her, but she made it through it. Then, the surgery was scheduled for November 29th at 7:30am. She did not make it through the surgery. Her heart rate and blood pressure dropped and they weren’t able to save her.
The past few years she’s enjoyed volunteering at the local hospital as a Pink Lady, being involved in a local woman’s club and spending time with her family anytime she can. Our daughter, Julie, got married in July to a wonderful man and our son, John, has a job here in Mt. Pleasant. Julie’s daughter, Mindy, gave birth to their 5th child on November 20th and she’s named in honor of her Nana. Dorothy got to spend lots of time with John’s kids and enjoyed anytime she had with any of her 5 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
We enjoyed almost 42 years of marriage and have many happy memories together. If you would like to give anything in honor of her life please send donations to First Baptist Church of Mt. Pleasant designated for the building fund. First Baptist Church 3rd and Madison P.O. Box 867 Mt. Pleasant, TX 75456-0867