My sister C was admitted to the Emergency Room on Friday. None of her family lives in Baton Rouge (I'm in Austin, TX, and another sister in Dallas). I just learned she was there from her roommate, and she was there alone. My sister in Dallas immediately headed that way, but I spent the whole day on the phone getting things arranged and finding out what was up with C. Her doctor's office had sent her there because she weighed 73 pounds (normally 130) and had a huge growth in her mouth. No one at the hospital knew she had dementia, and she answered questions normally, so they weren't watching when she left her bed and went outside to smoke.

My first call to the ER was to find out she was not there. I explained what I thought had probably happened, and they found her, and this is where Brittany came in. She assured me she was on it, and "on it" she was. She called me every time anything new happened, and she called to let me know the CT scan they did showed cancer, and they even diagnosed it as Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. We learned after taking C to Dallas to take care of her that the nurses in the ER very likely had a hard time getting her to do anything. Our apologies about that, and kudos for no one complaining.

Brittany is warm, intelligent, and efficient, and the thing I admired the most about her was that I asked her something I knew was probably not known by an ER nurse, and to her credit, she said, "I don't know." I just thought "good for her". She kept my family updated during a very trying visit. C's condition was a major shock to us, and I was happy to be able to go up to Dallas to spend a week with her while she was still talking, etc. She passed away.