March 1, 2009 at 7:26 am (Life can be hard sometimes, sadness)
Tags: aortic aneurysm, breast cancer, Death, Loss of a parent, prayer
My mother-in-law passed away early this morning.
She was happy when my husband saw her yesterday.
Sitting up, talking to people, chatting away.
Quite glad of the company and all the friends who had come to visit.
My husband is glad he went to visit her rather than finishing dipping the cattle and going in later today.
I am glad the kids and I had seen her a few times during the past week.
I am also glad that her death was not a long, drawn out, agonising thing, but was mercifully quick. She had a number of very painful attacks during the week (which she forgot almost instantly) and we all knew that she could not go on.
I am glad that one of her daughters who had been travelling overseas for the past month was able to see her yesterday and spend some quality time with her.
But I am sad.
Sadder than I thought I would be.
I haven’t cried yet. That will come after I tell the children. Until then I will be numb.
I know.
I have been through this before.
…and I dread the days to come.
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February 22, 2009 at 9:00 pm (Things that piss me off)
Tags: aortic aneurysm, Things that piss me off
…whilst sitting around your mother-in-law’s hospital bed.
1. Insist that ALL family members must be present at the bedside ALL day. I wonder when the poor woman (or her poor room-mates) were supposed to rest?
2. Steal *my very own* copy of a magazine while I was taking my child to the loo and then continue to read it for an hour after my return from said loo.
3. Eat chocolates in front of me and a sick woman who is only allowed to eat clear fluids and Not Offer Any To Anyone Else.
4. Tell my Very Patient Children that they have to put up with being very bored because Nana is very sick. (Personally, I think Nana’s short term memory is so bad she probably didn’t know who they were anyway).
…and the top Annoying thing?
5. Cary a copy of an unsigned will in their handbag, then demand that a woman who is terminally ill, on some serious pain medication, and who’s mental competency is dodgy at the best of times and is really bad at present to Sign The Will Before Its Too Late.
Conveniently ignore the fact that they organised a new will on the one occasion they saw their mother in the past 12 months without their other siblings present. Given that there is already a signed copy of a will MIL made in the 80s when her mental competency was good, one wonders what is in the new will that my sister-in-law is so keen to get her mother to sign???
It’s been a loooooong weekend folks!
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February 19, 2009 at 10:45 am (general mutterings)
Tags: aortic aneurysm, breast cancer, cancer, prayer
The good news….
My Mother-in-law’s breast cancer seems to be confined to her left breast. Scans have not shown any secondary tumours.
The terrible news is that, whilst checking out possible causes for her pneumonia, the doctors have discovered a *7cm* long aortic aneurysm.
The aorta is the main artery coming out of your heart.
An aneurysm is a weakening in the wall of a blood vessel.
A 7cm aortic aneurysm is a big bugger of an aneurysm.
If it ruptures, there is virtually no time to do anything but hold her hand as she bleeds to death.
We are in shock again for the second time in a month.
Being the information sponge that I am, I have asked Doctor Google for some answers … but he’s being cagey like always.
I’m hoping that they can manage her in the short term with drugs.
I’m hoping that the cancer is so slow growing that it will remain a secondary issue for the time being.
I’m praying for calmness because I’m not entirely sure exactly what I should be praying for.
*************************
Update 21/2/09, 10 am: We rushed 3.5 hours up to see MIL in hospy yesterday as we got an early morning call to say the aneurysm was not good and we should be there. She was stable when we got there. They care-flighted her back here (capital city) last night as we drove the 3.5 hours back home. We’ll find out if they will attempt surgery today – I hope.
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