Again, I face loss - Mum has passed away. It happened Sunday, March 10th, 2013 at 3:20 p.m. I was there with her.
Her decline since November 2012 has been rapid. The doctors felt it was the cancer - back again. Because it was slow moving they felt it was the renal cancer that had spread. I managed to get back to High River every two weeks and each time she was worse. She was becoming incontinent and less and less able to walk. Mum kept up a brave face and a good sense of humour - almost, but not quite, to the point of not acknowledging her eminent death. She was always fun to be with.
Don went to Thailand for Roger's wedding to Peach in January. At that time he booked hospice care at the High River Hospital for Mum and feared that she would not come out of the hosptial. He was right... I went in for 4 days while he was away and visited Mum at the hospital hospice. She was becoming slightly more confused, but knew that she was only in while Don was away. She kept asking where he was - it was so boring there. And it was! Oh my how horrid , old, vacant, wheel chair bound just plonked in the doorways and hallways. Poor Mum. Her apetite was waning too.
When Don returned they moved Mum up to the 3rd floor. Don truly did do a marvelous job looking after Mum and went above and beyond with his effort to keep her home for as long as he could. I continued to come in as often as possible, she kept declining. They performed MRI's and scans on Mum then, and discovered some blood clots in her lungs (small), and cancer, and also cancer that had encircled her spine at the lumbar 4 region. Thus the incontinence and paralysis...which would only get worse. Dr. Rader was amazed she could move her legs at all. Her pain level must have been intolerable but she seldom complained, and the Dr. seemed hesitant to put her on anything for fear that our (family/friends) quality of visits would be diminished....
Two weeks before her death we had a marvelous and fun visit on a Saturday evening. I took some pictures of her with Luvie, who I was taking in with me every time - the hospital was so good about pet visits. The next day, Sunday morning, I was shocked to see Mum was back on oxygen... then by Tuesday Don tearfully broke the news to me that Mum now had pnuemonia and the doctor felt she would be gone within a week. We had, and Mum as well upon the discovery of the advancing cancer, decided against any treatment and were going to go with comfort and care til her end. We had to make the decision whether to treat the pnuemonia, thus extending her life so that she could face excruciating and agonizing pain with bone cancer (in her spine), or quietly go with what they call the old person's friend - pnuemonia. We opted for a less painful demise - thus signing Mum's death warrant.
I had no idea what to expect -
