Today I found out my dear, sweet Grandma Dottie passed.

A little over two years ago, my Grandma experienced a cardiac episode; I don’t remember exactly what it was, but upon further investigation, they found that she had some specific heart “issues” and an aneurysm in the artery leading to her kidneys and lower abdomen. Shortly before Chel and my wedding in 2007, she underwent surgery that wound up being a quadruple-bypass procedure. The aneurysm would be put on a wait-and-watch. They weren’t sure how long it existed and it may have been with her for 20 years.

Late last year, her cardiologist decided they would go from wait-and-watch to do-something. It was determined that she would get a stint placed in the artery to reinforce the bulge. Between the questionable placement and space issues and the fact that my grandma fractured her shoulder going ass-over-tea-kettle early this year, her surgery was delayed a several months. Late last week, she finally went in. Like the previous surgery, it turned from a 3 hour stint-insert to a 9 hour quadruple-artery graft/bypass, she was done. Because of the complications, she was in a lot more pain than she had first anticipated.

Let me tell you about my grandparents. Both of them had an extremely high pain threshold. When my grandfather passed, we found out later that the main contributing factor was long-term kidney failure. My aunt and uncle said he would occasionally complain of lower back pain and maybe pop an Advil; from what I understand, kidney failure is no walk in the park, pain-wise. Shortly before last Christmas, my Grandma after fractured her shoulder. Because of the location of the break, they could do little more than immobilize it in a sling; a cast wouldn’t work. She didn’t complain about the pain and if you didn’t know her well enough, you’d think it was a simple sprain for all her very grandmotherly attitude had flagged. But I knew she wasn’t doing well; there were moments where I would see the pain and frustration in her face if she moved the wrong way or if she was sitting too long in the same position. About the only thing she said about it was that she was a bit grouchy because she couldn’t style her hair properly due to her need for the use of her right hand.

I spoke with my mom last night to get an update on my Grandma’s condition… she had been moved from the constantly-monitored ICU to a slightly-less critical ICU room. They had her doped up on morphine, but apparently she was in quite a bit of pain.

Early this morning, her prognosis started downhill. She wasn’t absorbing well oxygen, her kidneys didn’t seem to be working and she was having other issues. When we visited at Easter, she pulled me aside and let me know that if worse came to worst, she ready for it to be her time and didn’t want extraordinary measures to be taken… that was a hard conversation to take as a grandson; I’m sure it wasn’t a picnic for my mom and her siblings.

My Grandma Dottie passed this morning. She was 82. Tomorrow would have been her 65th anniversary with my Grandpa; he died 6 years ago.

I love her very much and I’m going to miss her.