Mom’s End: 8th Update

I’ve copied my previous updates from Facebook into here, so that people can see the statuses as they were and they can come up to date with them.

Since my last post here, Dad had stayed in Mom’s hospital room all night on Tuesday and got about 20 minutes of sleep. When we came in on Wednesday, we met with the CCU Doctor, and we agreed to take Mom off of all additional assistance (oxygen, fluids, blood tests, etc.) and only supply pain medication as needed. That was all taken off at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday (9/2/09). At that point, my father had been here for 30 hours straight, and went home to get some rest and a shower. My brother and I stayed to be with her. In about 2 hours, her pulse rate got very erratic and her breathing got very shallow. We decided to call my Dad, who came in to the hospital in about 15 minutes. He got 1.5 hours of sleep, and didn’t get to take a shower.

We thought every breath was her last, and we went through periods of speaking to her and telling her it was okay to go, to being totally silent for 1.5 hours, to talking about funeral arrangements, so more mundane things. Through it all, Mom kept breathing. Again, she’s a fighter.

I went for a walk at about 6 p.m., and my brother left shortly after that. I went home around 7 or so, and went to the gym (had to do something physical) and had three friends invite themselves over and they brought food (Thanks Charles, David, and Bill!)

In coming in this morning, Mom is still breathing, and actually less shallow than yesterday. Dad slept about 2 hours last night, and went home this morning for more rest and a shower. My brother and I were here when they told us they were moving her upstairs to the Oncology Unit at Emerson Hospital, as they are use to dealing with End of Life Care here. Nothing else has changed.

It’s quite draining on all of us. My father got 1.5 hours of sleep and a shower. We’re all here, and holding on. 

Thanks again for everyone’s support

Ken.