Richard from Ohio

I cared for both my grandfather and grandmother when they were battling cancer. My grandfather had esophageal cancer, so I had to take him to chemo and radiation treatments at University Hospital in Cleveland on a regular basis, same with my grandmother when she was fighting lung cancer. I also had to do their running around, shopping, pickup prescriptions, housework and repair, car maintenance and repair, etc. The doctors only gave grandpa a 10% chance of beating the esophageal cancer, but he went through all the treatments and surgical procedures to try to beat it so he could be around longer with our family. He fought hard for 6 months and almost beat it, but he ultimately succumbed to complications from the surgery. His tissue was just too weak from all the radiation treatments to recover. He died in the hospital with family surrounding him. Grandma fought off her lung cancer for 2 1/2 years before ultimately succumbing to it. She died in hospice. The people at Hospice really were kind souls, they explained the signs and tried their best to help the family cope and they grieved right along with us. It was a much more comforting environment to be in than a hospital setting.