Stage IV lung cancer

[Texin]

17. My former sister-in-law died of it at the age of 42. She only smoked occasionally.

And mostly during her twenties. In other words, she would never have called a smoker. But folks can die of this without ever having picked up a cigarette in their lives. Maybe second hand smoke? Who knows. (Dana Reeves, Christopher's widow, developed it during her mid-forties and she had never smoked).

My former S-I-L had just not felt well for about a month, with symptoms of a bronchial infection, and since it was during the winter, she just didn't think much of it. Oh, BTW, she was a registered nurse - so no dummy, but this caught her up by the short hairs, so to speak. It was state IV. I believe she was diagnosed in late November. She was dead by July, just one or two days after her forty-second birthday. According to my older nephew, who was at the time a LVN, her last couple or so weeks in hospice were absolute hell for her. Fatal lung cancer is just about the most agonizing death a human can face. I'm sure there are worse, but they're probably of shorter duration. This just is one prolonged hideous struggle.