Collen, please know lots of prayers coming your way, it has to be so hard on everyone, and words are next to impossible,  Am so very sorry. Jo Ann Scott   ________________________________ From: Colleen <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; jan cortez <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2011 6:45 PM Subject: [TTTP] BRENDA'S CONDITION Hi everyone, I had hoped to come to you with better news, but I can't.  Brenda is back in the hospital and this time it doesn't appear that she'll ever walk back out.   This time she's in intensive care. She had a stress-related heart attack last night that did significant damage to that muscle.  This is on top of a broken neck for the second time. Brenda's stomach is now swollen to a 9-month pregnancy with triplets (this from her daughter-in-law who is at Brenda's bedside).  This is the ascites I told you all about in earlier messages.  This infection has now gone into her bloodstream. Brenda is on fluids to keep her blood pressure up however, those same fluids have no where to go out of her body.  Though she is on a catheter, it isn't enough.  The fluids are going to cause another breakdown in her body system, they just don't know where yet.  But when that next whatever happens, Brenda will be pulled off the fluids and nature will be allowed to take its course while keeping her comfortable.  She has signed a DNR (Do Not Resusitate) order. I talked to her just a little bit ago.  Her breathing is labored, very raspy. Her family has been called in and met this morning with the doctor and Brenda, herself.  The doctor says her condition is extreme.  She has days to weeks left to live, the doctor unable to give a better idea of the length of time left.  All he can say is he "can't speak for God." Brenda has been my closest friend since we were stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma 18 years ago, yet we've never met.  To say this is a hard message to write is an understatement.  I've been looking into flights to head for Michigan, where she lives to finally meet her and to say good-bye at the same time.  :`(    Whether I'll go or not, I still don't know.  I want to remember Brenda on the other side of my phone and my monitor, not lying in a hospital bed.  So I'm caught. I don't know what else to say.  It really hurts, though. Be with the Creator, Bren.  I love you, my friend. Colleen ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message