After a return to the hospital and transfer to a larger and more comprehensive facility, consultation with oncologists made it clear that this cancer is untreatable. Heavy chemotherapy would possibly extend her life a few months, but she would be in constant pain and nausea, unable to meaningfully enjoy the extra life. And there is a very significant risk that it could kill her even more rapidly. So she has decided to forgo any cancer treatments, and is getting effective palliative care.  She is at peace with this decision and is her stoic self. She had been told many years ago that because of a cardiac condition, she’d be unlikely to live to 40, so all those years after are, to her, a bonus. She’ll be coming home soon and receive home hospice care as long as that’s possible.

This is a horrible time for all of us in her real and virtual family, but we want to celebrate the time we’ve had with her. She’s given me the best 15 years of my life and filled the worlds of everyone around her with light and joy. Those who have known her understand exactly what I’m saying.

I’ll always treasure being married to her as the greatest gift the universe could ever bestow on me.

 

(Original announcement.)