Sent:  Wed 10/15/03 5:22 PM

Subject:  An Interesting Conversation

Hi to all, I am sure that you all are as sad and upset about the news about Mom as i am and i thought i would share this conversation with you all. I was talking with a friend from work, Brad. 

Brad is an extemely nice guy and early this year he told me alot about his grandfather (GF) who died in January. The GF was 90, and had been a PA supreme court chief justice and was quite a "character".  Brad and his wife would go out to Pittsburg 3-4 times a year to visit him in his assisted living center. It turns out that GF had a feeding tube and also a colon tube.  It turns out that GF had a stroke a while ago (Brad could not remember when) that caused him not to be able to swallow food, and it took him a while to be understood.  He also was not all that mobile. 

But he lead a very full and interesting life inspite of the fact that he could not eat food. I am sharing this with you all becuase i must admit that when i heard that Mom may not be able to swallow food, that it really hit me hard.  I guess that wasTHE ONE aspect that really let me know the severity of the stroke.  It also gave me images of her having a very poor quality of life.  Hey if you can't eat, that has to be very bad. 

Well we all know that each stroke is different and itis too early to tell how it will turn out, but it gives me great hope to know that people can recover from strokes severe enough to prevent one from eating and still have a high quality of life like Brad' GF. I guess in my mind that was a dividing line.   

Who knows how this will all end up, but with my conversation with Brad it tells me that having to take food from a feeding tube does not mean that she cannot have a good quality of life.  There may be other factors that limit her quality of life but it does not HAVE to be that one. I don't know if i am explaining it well, but it did give me some hope. Take care, Love to all, Tom