It's rare that my mother calls me, let alone after 10:00. It's even rarer that she leaves a voicemail, and when she said she had 'news about Grandma,' I knew it couldn't be a good thing.

Many of you know my grandmother, and know that she is one of the most caring, selfless, and all around decent people on the planet. Those of you who don't know her, your life is less enjoyable because of it. In all my life, I've never heard her utter a negative word against anyone, even those that probably deserve it. She'll be the first one there when you need help, and the last one to admit she needs it herself.

At any rate, I'm worried about her right now. She's been in the hospital for the last few days with a bladder and kidney infection -- bad enough individually, let alone together, and let alone at the age of 80. She was supposed to be released from the hospital a couple of days ago, but her condition apparently never improved enough to warrant it.

In the course of other medical tests, doctors found that her heart has two leaky valves. On top of that, the bladder/kidney infection had apparently spread to one of them, so now she has a bacterial infection in her heart. So, she's now facing a bladder infection, a kidney infection, a bacterial infection in her heart, the possibility of an infection in her bloodstream, and the possibility of needing open-heart surgery to repair it all. At the age of 80, the prospect of all of this makes me quite nervous. I worry about her ability to fight off infection, and the idea of her having to recoup after open-heart surgery is very unsettling.

I'm trying my best to stay positive, but I just have a bad feeling about it all. An any rate, that's all I have to say right now. I've been working on posts about France and the state of journalism, but none of that really matters at the moment.