My family and I last saw my father alive on Wednesday, May 17, 2008 at 8:00pm as he laid in his hospital bed at the San Francisco Veteran’s Administration Medical Center awake, his eyes closed. His breathing was shallow but he looked relaxed and at ease. Unlike the day before, his silver hair was combed and his face was clean shaven but his cheeks were no longer rosy. They were sunken and pale and his lips were dry. His team of doctors told us 2 hours before that he could die anytime. Last week they said it could be days, weeks or months but on May 17, it was imminent. His blood count was dropping fast, a sign that his cancer caused him to internally bleed. His doctors told us he had lung cancer the third day after he was admitted to the hospital. Well, they believe it’s cancer due to the symptoms of high levels of calcium, chronic sleepiness and emphysema, a byproduct of his 50 plus years of smoking cigarettes. They could have done a cat-scan to look for the lung cancer but the pro...
Formerly Stuff in SF Native's Head