h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: A personal experience of Bowel cancer...from diagnosis - A21898335
Author: RT_JFC - U7013202

Please can you review this for me.

Many thanks

Hello RT_JFC

I've posted in your journal

My son and I have just read your diary and have been deeply moved by such terrible experiences.
Your mum and dad have had to put up with so much, that we are just glad they have you and such a loving and supportive family.

I wonder about the perception that health services are fine, that is until you have any experience of them.
Not on the same plane as your experiences, but my mum had her knee done at Christmas, only having waited for ten years.
Her quality of life had suffered so much, she was pinning all her hopes on it, but the one word that fails me of her and our families experience, is sadly, care.
I hope that you can help your mum as much as possible, but your love will be the best comfort of all
Jack and Sue Anderson

Please can you add the following conclusion to my entry.

Sadly my father passed away on 3rd December 2007 on my parents wedding Anniversay. He had a terrible night a week before he passed away and we had to call out the emergency doctor to administer intravenous Morphine. The doctor that came out wasn’t the normal one, he was part of the call out team from Croydon so knew nothing about my fathers history. He administered the whole capsule when his prescribed dose was a tenth of that amount. My dad slept heavily from that point. It was a relief to see him out of pain but both my mother and I exchanged looks as we wondered if he had received an overdose.

The doctor said on meeting my father in terrible pain “You poor man” and then injected the phial of morphine into my dad.

The next morning I went with my father to the hospice, he was collected by ambulance and in a semi conscious state. My mother followed to the hospice in her car.

On arrival at the hospice, my dad was taken to the ward and we were spoken to by the consultant. She asked us what we hoped the outcome of his stay in the hospice would be. “I replied to help him manage the pain and then come home”. He was thirsty, so I helped him drink water through a straw. He drank a lot. He was still not 100% aware of his surroundings.

We stayed with him and then I continued to visit him in the hospice for the next 5 days. I was shown how to give him an aromatherapy hand massage by one of the nurses, this was to help calm him and give human contact, comfort for both of us. I kept the telly tuned into his favourite programmes as I wasn’t aware if he could hear or not and didn’t wanted him to have a familiar routine. After a bad night the nurses informed me he was in pain so they brought him into the nurses station with them. He was then placed in a morphine induced coma without drips and the only liquid he consumed was when I squeezed a sponge filled with water in his mouth. The nurses explained that to offer my father food or water in the form of a drip would be crueller for him and draw the end out. My mother sadly had flu during his last week and not realising it was likely to be his last week didn’t visit as she didn’t want to make him or the other patients unwell. The hospice nurses were fantastic, they told me to take a break and as it was December I decided to walk into town. It was then I broke down, seeing all the shoppers planning their christmas’s and realising what lay ahead for my father and family.

I was told to go home and sleep as my dads passing wasn’t imminent. When I arrived home I received a call telling us to return to the hospice as he was about to go. We all bundled into the car but were greeted by the hospice nurse with tears in her eyes and outstretched hands to ours…and said “I am so sorry he has just gone”..we were too late, but at least he wasn’t alone. I am so glad he wasn’t in hospital but the hospice when he passed. My sister hadnt realised how bad he had got as she was battling her own battle with Cancer and had just had a hysterectomy, she was able to visit him but so shocked how unwell and close to dying he had become since she had last seen him.

I hope this helps others..

Hello cheerful pessimist

We are very sorry to hear of the passing of your father

Thank you for updating the entry and we have added what you requested.

Take care,

h2g2 Eds