Per Alicia’s go ahead, I’m sharing with you the current state of her health. As you are likely aware, Alicia had been in the ICU but moved out recently. This was not because something was fixed or healed or that she is “better;” this was her request.
Moving out of the ICU meant relocation to a larger room where family and friends could spend time more easily. Alicia has been in the hospital for 12 days at this point. I’ve visited with her in 4 rooms. The truth of the matter is that the care she is receiving in her current location is palliative, which means that the nurses are there to make her comfortable, not to heal her.
What exactly is going on with her physically? Without going into too much detail, her lung tumors have grown and she needs to be on oxygen full time (you read more about this in a previous post). Even with the oxygen, she is struggling to breathe. In addition, Alicia has a fracture in her right hip, the side where her large tumor is. Consequently, she is in bed 24/7. Neither the breathing nor the hip problems are fixable.
She is awake some each day, eating and drinking, chatting with visiting friends, snuggling with Clarabelle, and napping. Her pain is being worked on and she is comfortable, considering the circumstances.
To be perfectly blunt, it’s hard to say how much time she has left. Alicia’s emergency network has been activated and her good friends and family have either come into town already, are here now, or will be in San Francisco shortly. Visits are extremely limited due to how exhausting they are for her.
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Alicia Parlette 